EVERETT — Snohomish County’s longest-serving Superior Court judge said Friday he’s decided to withdraw his bid for re-election, rather than face a campaign against four other candidates.
Judge Thomas Wynne has served on the Superior Court bench for 24 years. Wynne had intended to run again this year, even though the state Constitution would have forced him from office mid-term because of age limits.
He was the only candidate in the race until Friday — when the others jumped in. That caused him to reconsider. He’d have to mount a primary campaign and, if successful, compete again during the fall.
“It doesn’t appear to me to be worth the effort that I would have to put in to run in those elections,” Wynne said. “It would be very expensive in terms of time and energy.”
Candidate filing week, which ended Friday afternoon, set the tone for the Aug. 2 primary and Nov. 8 General Election.
Down-ballot contests, such as the one for Superior Court, figure into a season full of competition for statewide and federal offices, among them the next U.S. president.
Of the 15 Superior Court judges in Snohomish County, Wynne was the only one who drew challengers. The job is nonpartisan.
Wynne was first elected to the Superior Court in 1992 and before that had served 14 years as a district court judge.
Now 73, the state Constitution would have forced him to leave office at the end of the year he turns 75. Though that would have meant exiting after 2018, Wynne said his colleagues on the bench encouraged him to stay on.
Wynne said Friday he plans to endorse another candidate in the race, Cindy Larsen, a Snohomish County deputy prosector who lives in Everett. He extolled Larsen’s legal mind and 20 years of experience with both civil and criminal law.
“I think she’ll be an excellent Superior Court judge,” he said.
The other contenders for the court’s Position 3 are Kevin McCabe, of Mukilteo, Rico Tessandore, of Everett, and S. Richard Peterson, who listed an address in San Antonio, Texas, when he filed.
McCabe works as a criminal defense attorney in King County. Tessandore runs a law office in Lynnwood and ran for the Superior Court unsuccessfully in 2010.
Peterson is a registered Snohomish County voter, despite his out-of-state mailing address, county elections manager Garth Fell said. The candidate, who identifies himself as Scott Peterson in his voice mail, did not return messages left Friday.
Other local highlights this political season include a matchup between appointed County Councilman Hans Dunshee and challenger Sam Low, a Lake Stevens city councilman. Dunshee, a former Democratic state lawmaker from Snohomish, was selected on Feb. 29 to fill the District 5 seat that Dave Somers left to become county executive. Low, a Republican, announced his campaign shortly after Somers won the executive’s job in the November election.
A man who’s been in the spotlight as a leader of a group trying to build a mosque in Mukilteo is among a field of opponents running against a freshman state House member.
Mohammed Riaz Khan, president of the planned Islamic Center of Mukilteo, listed no party preference. He’s trying to unseat state Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, who was appointed to represent the 21st Legislative District in 2014 and won election to the job later that year. The other contenders are Libertarian Party candidate Bruce Guthrie of Edmonds and Republican candidate Jeff Scherrer of Lynnwood.
Ballot measures for the primary include a countywide sales tax of 0.2 percent to support the criminal justice system. Snohomish County Fire Districts 3 and 7 are asking voters to approve a merger.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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