Elected WA Supreme Court judge reacts to narrow midterm win

It was one of the most hotly contested races of the midterms, although five of the nine state Supreme Court seats were up for grabs. Position four between judges Ian Burke and Sean O'Donnell was the most watched and talked about. And this week, after days in limbo, O'Donnell declaring victory, and it was a slim margin. Here is O'Donnell's reaction to his win. I'm obviously honored and, of course, happy that I won. And, um, This was a race about contrasts as every election is, and I'm just so grateful for the voters of our state who decided to send me to Olympia to be on the state Supreme Court, and it really is the honor of my life. This year, Burke and O'Donnell's race together saw more than two million campaign dollars pumped into that race, which is unprecedented. Also unprecedented is how political it got. These races are supposed to be nonpartisan, but campaign emailers from those supporting Burke accused O'Donnell of not being able to be impartial on the bench because he had some Republican endorsements. Prior to the midterms, that issue came up during a debate that I moderated between the two candidates, and it continues to be a talking point even now. Usually these races are pretty sleepy because we're talking about court rules or precedents or, you know, other things that are sort of below the radar for most of the voting public. This race was unfortunately became very partisan. And you'll recall in our debate, I really pointed out that that was a mistake to make this race partisan. And the reason it was is because impartial jurists is really best for our court and best for Washington. And I think the voters saw through that. And this is the result we ended up with. Ultimately, it was a false narrative. Sort of characterize me as being something that I'm not. I've been a career public servant, and for 25 years I've worked for the people of King County in our state. And as a judge, there's never a decision I've made that has been based on politics. And so that's I think why I had such broad support from really well-known Democrats, Republicans. And in a judicial race, You know, one of the strengths of a judicial officer is if you can have people on opposite sides of an issue, you don't agree on anything saying, yeah, but we trust him to be a fair jurist, to keep an open mind until he hears all the facts and the law like that, that is a strength. And I think that's what voters embraced in this election. O'Donnell also had many high profile Democrats who supported him. He says he sees bipartisan support as a good thing, as you just heard. However, in the end, he says those endorsements should never play a role in any state Supreme Court decision, like the millionaire tax, for example, which is expected to reach the state's highest court in the near future.