SECTION I               

BASIC CANDIDATE INFORMATION

1. Name as it will appear on the ballot

First Name	Middle Initial or Nick Name	Last Name
Robert	H.	Alsdorf

2.   Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):

State Supreme Court, Position 1

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes              No

4.   How long have you resided in this district/city?

Lived in Seattle nearly 30 years

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

Same

6.   Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan?         Partisan      Nonpartisan         

7.   If partisan, please indicate party: 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

Campaign Name:	Committee to Elect Judge Robert Alsdorf
Address:	705 2^nd Ave, Suite 1100
City/State/Zip:	Seattle, WA 98104
Campaign Phone:	206.898.9841
Campaign Fax:
Campaign E-mail:	ElectAlsdorf@comcast.net
Campaign Website:	www.ElectAlsdorf.org

POLITICAL BACKGROUND

1.   Beginning with the most recent position, please list public offices which you have held.  Include positions on appointive Boards or Commissions.

Public Office	Elective or Appointive?	Dates Held	Leadership Role (if any)
King County Superior Court Judge	Appointed; then elected twice	1990- present	Chief IC Judge, 1992; Ass't Chief Civil Judge, 1999; Chief Civil Judge, 2000; Liaison Judge to National Center for State Courts, 1993-98; Chair, Mass Tort / Toxic Tort Panel, 1993-96; Exec. Comm. Member, 1999-2002;
Board of Directors, Stevens Neighborhood Housing Improvement Program	Elected by neighborhood vote	1979-82	President, 1980-82

2.   If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:

Office Title

Year of Run

SECTION III

In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge.  These are defined as follows:

• Involvement: What has the candidate done previously in family, neighborhood, community, volunteer work, employment or public life to suggest readiness to accomplish challenging objectives? How do these activities demonstrate readiness for the challenges unique to the office sought?

• Effectiveness: Has the candidate demonstrated promise of being productive in the office sought?  Has the candidate shown the ability to work with other people?

• Character: Do the candidate's personal traits show the ability to take on the responsibilities of campaigning for and holding the public office she or he is seeking? Is the candidate a leader, participant or observer?  Is the candidate trustworthy, reliable and candid?

§ Knowledge: Has the candidate demonstrated the willingness and ability to learn and adapt?  Does the candidate understand the duties and challenges of the office sought?  Does the candidate have a firm grasp of the issues important to his or her constituency and their potential effects?

1. In a page or less, why are you running for this office?  (Note: the interview committee will be given a copy of this statement before your interview; at the beginning of your interview you will have the opportunity to expand on this statement in any way you wish.)

First, I have more experience in the trial courts than any other candidate for this position.  Since law school I have spent more than thirty years working in the trial courts, and fourteen years as a trial judge.  I am the only candidate  who has had any experience as a trial judge. Day in and day out, I have seen how the law impacts people in divorces, juvenile cases, injuries, neighborhood disputes, criminal offenses, I have listened to victims, I have sentenced defendants for serious crimes.  I know to the marrow of my bones how the law affects real people.  I know that each case must be judged on the facts that pertain to those individuals, and that decisions must never be based on political slogans.

Second, I understand diversity. We do want our judges to decide cases firmly and clearly, but in order to be fair, before any judge decides a case, that judge must be committed to listen carefully, to think, to seek to understand all those who come before them.  Because of the way I was raised, that is part of my nature.   I was raised in Japan.  My parents were missionaries there. I lived there twelve years, and left Japan when I graduated from high school.  I returned to the United States for four years of college, and then spent two years in Africa in the Peace Corps, working as a teacher.  I returned to the United States for law school and upon finishing law school my first job was enforcing civil rights laws.  Thus, for all of my formative years and up through my early twenties, I straddled multiple cultures.  I learned at a young age how important it is to work to understand others, regardless of how different they may seem on the surface. 

Third, judges and justices must be fair and impartial.  In the most recent quadrennial King County Bar Poll, I received the highest proportion of “Excellent” responses of any of the fifty Superior Court judges in all categories rated:  decision-making, demeanor, efficiency, impartiality and overall evaluation.  What is most significant to me is the rating for impartiality.  The attorneys who responded to this poll were winners and losers, and were in almost equal proportion, prosecutors and defenders, tort lawyers and insurance defense lawyers, commercial lawyers, family law lawyers, and probate lawyers.  It would not be possible for me to have been rated so highly if I had been arbitrary.  The only way I could achieve such respect from such disparate members of the bar is by doing my best to firmly and clearly apply the law equally to all who appeared before me.

2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.

     I want to understand people with differing views, and I enjoy honest intellectual and personal give-and-take. 

     I express myself clearly and firmly as a judge, but I believe I do so with patience; I believe that is why the most recent King County Bar Poll gave me the highest rating of any of the fifty judges for decision-making, demeanor, impartiality and efficiency.

     I work hard to be a good judge.  That requires not only that I complete all tasks in a timely manner and try to be fair to all who present their cases in court, but also that I do my fair share of judicial administrative duties, both in the county and state-wide.  I believe that is one reason why I have received the endorsement of seven retired Supreme Court Justices, of differing backgrounds, while none of my opponents has even a single such endorsement.

3. Please describe in sufficient detail, one to three accomplishments or contributions of which you are most proud.  These examples should illustrate effective skills and capabilities you think apply to the office you are seeking.  These accomplishments may have occurred at any time in your personal, professional, or public life. 

1.  As a trial judge, I worked very hard to make my I-695 decision understandable to the ordinary citizen.  I also arranged to have it immediately published on the internet so that all members of the public could read it, and none would have to rely on talking heads to spin or re-interpret the case.  Not too long after I had done that, we were able both to set up a web site for the King County Superior Court and to set up a link on the site for immediate access to significant King County Superior Court rulings.  I felt this was an important part of educating the public and allowing them access to rulings that were of great significance to them.

2. As a senior trial judge, I have worked hard to help new judges understand the nature of the judicial role and the extent to which it differs from their experience as litigators.  Perhaps the most rewarding event, truly far more important than formal awards, was the gift that suddenly appeared in my court one day.  It was the seal of the State of Washington, and on the back I read the following:

“Dear Judge Alsdorf,

We are a small group of anonymous King County Superior Court Judges.  All of us have less than four years as a judge. 

Please accept this gift as a token of our appreciation for your demonstrated excellence in jurisprudence, your leadership among judges, and your commitment to improving judges and the justice system.

It does not go unnoticed.

Warmest regards,

Judges Sub Rosa”

            I have learned who many, but not all, of the judges are, and I remain very touched by their sentiments.

3. As a sitting judge, but also as a citizen who is disturbed by the increasing stridency and division in our political lives, I am concerned that a recent United States Supreme Court ruling purporting to announce “free speech” rights for judges may cause courts to become similarly divisive and may have a detrimental impact on the impartial application of the laws.  Therefore, I wrote a law review article entitled “The Sound of Silence” in which I try to articulate reasons why judges should restrain themselves from speaking publicly on disputed political and legal issues. (Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 2, August, 2003.)

4. Please list or describe your current and past activities in the community in which you have acquired skills that relate to the office you seek.  Include your role in the activity and the year(s) in which you were involved.  Involvement consists of many areas such as family, neighborhood, community, employment, or public life.

            I have been a member of the Board of Directors of the King County Bar Foundation (2001-04), which supports minority scholarships and provides financial support for volunteer legal aid programs, and have been a member of the Access to Justice Committee of the Board. 

            I am a co-founder and immediate past President of the William L. Dwyer Inns of Court, an organization formed to mentor young attorneys. 

            I am deeply involved in national and international legal education efforts for judges, and in international legal reform, and can provide a list of scores of presentations and programs if you wish (you may also review the list at my website, www.electalsdorf.org ). 

            I also am an elected member of the American Law Institute, which drafts restatements of the law and works on legal reform within the United States. 

            Since 2000, I have been a member of the Honorary Advisory Committee for the Peace Corps Master’s Degree Program at Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington and have been engaged in speaking and mentoring at the school.

            In the mid-1990’s, I was member and co-chair of the Diversity Committee at The Lakeside School in Seattle, working with parents, teachers and administration to ensure that the  school could attract and retain students of all backgrounds.

            In the mid-1980’s, I was a member of the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Committee, and of Ploughshares, a group of returned Peace Corps Volunteers.  I did preliminary visits to the Soviet Union  to set up exchanges of American and Soviet students; was co-leader of an exchange between American and Soviet lawyers and judges, traveled to Leningrad, Moscow and Tashkent, and hosted the return visit to Seattle.  I also helped to organize volunteers and deliver construction materials for erection of a sister city park in Tashkent by Seattle citizens.

            When I was an attorney in the early 1980’s, I was a member of the Board of the Stevens Neighborhood Housing Improvement Program, and its president; this board provided funding for low income persons to repair and maintain their homes.

            When my children were younger, I also volunteered to be a soccer referee and a stroke-and-turn judge in local athletic leagues.

5. Please describe the duties of the office you seek.  Which are the most important duties and why?

The Supreme Court has multiple duties, including the following:

1.  The Court must select which cases to hear, and to do so in a way that reduces confusion, uncertainty and ambiguity in the law.

2.  The Court must prepare itself carefully in order not only to hear but to fully comprehend oral argument.

3.  The Court must decide cases clearly and in a timely fashion, expressing its reasoning in a way that is comprehensible to the general public and is respectful of those whose arguments have not succeeded.

4.  The Court must administer and lead the state court system with efficiency and economy.

5.  The Court must interact with the other branches of government in a way that is respectful of the other branches' respective areas of responsibility, but that clearly and without hostility issues rulings when necessary on the application and ultimate constitutionality of state laws and actions.

All five are important duties; each one is most important at different times and under different circumstances.  A slighting of any one of these duties for any protracted period of time would be detrimental to the functioning of our government.

EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report is distributed to voters in print and/or on our website.  It includes a summary of the candidate’s education.  Please summarize your education in 120 characters (letters, punctuation, and space all combined).  The League will delete material that exceeds the space limit by beginning with the last entry.  Suggested order is (degree) (subject) (school) (year, if desired). 

Note: If this question is left blank the League will not include education information in your candidate profile.

J.D., M.A. (Am. Hist.), Yale Univ., 1973; B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, Distinction in History, Carleton Coll., 1967.

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report also includes a summary of each candidate’s civic involvement.  Please summarize your civic involvement in the space below.  We will make every attempt to include the information in the Candidate Evaluation Report as submitted.  Due to space restrictions in the Report, your response is limited to 500 characters (letters, punctuation, and spaces all combined).  It is important that you list your involvement beginning with the most important and ending with the least important.  If you exceed the length of response permitted, or if the League should find it necessary to shorten responses for publication purposes,  deletions will be made beginning with the last item listed. 

Note: This information will appear verbatim on the League’s Candidate Evaluation Report.  If this question is left blank, the Municipal League will not include information on your civic involvement in the Report.

Check here if you would like the Municipal League to copy the first 500 characters from Question 4 to paste into this section.

King Cy. Bar Fndn., Bd. of Dir., (01-04); Wm. L. Dwyer, Inns of Court (Co-founder, Pres., 02-); Am. Law Inst. (99-); Hon. Adv. Comm., Evans School, U.W. (00-); Diversity Comm., Lakeside (92-95); Soccer Referee, Swim Team Judge (87-89); Sea-Tashkent Sister City Comm.(85-92); Cent. & E. Eur. Law Init. (90-98); Wa.St.Cts.Hist.Soc., Bd. of Dir. (02-); Sup.Ct.Hist.Soc., (90-); Leg.Comm., Sup.Ct.Jud.Assn., (00-); Lecturer at ABA, WSBA, KCBA, European Union, Commonwealth Lawyers Assn. progs. (90-).     

Supplemental Judicial Candidate Questionnaire

1.   Briefly describe the nature of your current practice/position including types of clients and areas, if any, of specialization.  State what percentage involves civil litigation, criminal litigation, and/or nonlitigation.

  I have been a King County Superior Court Judge  since 1990.  My duties are split roughly equally between civil and criminal litigation.  I also have had substantial administrative duties as head of the individual calendaring program, as assistant chief civil judge, and as chief civil judge.

2.   Identify all your experience as a neutral decision maker (e.g. judge, permanent or pro tem, in any jurisdiction, administrative law judge, hearing officer, arbitrator, etc.)

   In addition to the information set forth in response to Question No. 1, above, I spent one month in the spring of 1995 as a visiting judge, pro tem, on Division I of the Washington State Court of Appeals.  In the 1980's, I did significant volunteer work as a Federal Rule 39.1 Mediator.  I also worked during that period of time as an arbitrator under King County's Mandatory Arbitration Rules, and was privately hired as an American Arbitration Association arbitrator.

3.   If you have been a judge, identify any court committees on which you have served or administrative positions you have held, including dates.

·Trial Judge, Superior Court:  First appointed July, 1990; elected September, 1990; re-elected 1992, 1996 & 2000.       

·Judicial Responsibilities and Leadership Positions:

    ·Chief Civil Judge (2000); Assistant Chief Civil Judge (1999); Chair, Individual Calendaring Program (1992);

    ·Member, King County Superior Court Judges Executive Committee (1999-2002);

    ·Chair, King County Mass Tort /Toxic Tort Panel (1993-96);

    ·Chair, King County Asbestos Panel (Chair of Asbestos Panel, 1993-97; Asbestos Motions Judge, 1991-95; chief Maritime Asbestos Judge, 1994-2000; Asbestos Settlement Judge, 2001- );

    ·Member, Mass Tort Litigation Committee: appointed by the National  Conference of State Court Chief Justices (1993-98); member, Executive Committee (1996-98);

    ·Washington State Liaison Judge to the National Center for State Courts, Williamsburg, Virginia:  appointed by Chief Justice Anderson of the Supreme Court of Washington (1993-98)

    ·Trustee, King County Law Library Board (1994-1999);

    ·First Pro Tem Judge on Appellate Court:  Appointed by Presiding Judge of King County to inaugurate an exchange program with Division I of the Washington State Court of Appeals (March, 1995);

    ·Judicial member of the Executive Committee, Washington State Bar Association Consumer Protection, Antitrust & Unfair Business Practices Committee (1990-98).

    ·Superior Court Judges’ Association: Project 2001 Committee on Court Reorganization (Member; Chair of Specialty Courts Subcommittee, 2000); Arbitration & Settlement (County, Member 1990-94); Budget (County, Member 1992-4); Civil Law & Rules (State, Member 1990- , Chair 1993-95 & 2000-03 ); Civil Rules (County,  Member 1990-93); Construction & Facilities (County, Chair 1990-96; Seismic Subcommittee, Chair, 2001- ); Ex Parte & Probate Committee (County, Chair 2000-02); Individual Calendar Transition Team (1995-96); Judiciary and the Media (State, 2002- ); Jury & A.D.R.  (County, Member 1992-98); Legislative Committee (State, Member, 2001-03, Vice-chair, 2003-  ); Local Rules (County, Member 1995-2000; Chair 1995-99 ); Judicial Ethics (State, Member 1996-97);     

    ·Supreme Court, State of Washington, Duplicate Rules Committee (1997-2000);                                                                                             

    ·King County Bar Association: Task Force on Court Funding (Co-chair, 2003); Judicial Elections Guidelines Committee (member, 1995); Judiciary & The Courts Committee (member, 1989-90); KCMAR Arbitration Panel (arbitrator, 1981-90);

    ·Washington State Bar Association:  Consumer Protection, Antitrust & Unfair Business Practices Section (member, 1975-1990; Secretary-Treasurer, 1987-88; Executive Committee, 1990; Judicial member, 1990-98);

    ·Federal Bar Association:  Rule 39.1 Committee (member, 1987-90); Rule 39.1 Mediator (1983-90);

    ·American Bar Association:  Member (1975-  ); Judicial Section (Member, 1990- ); Mass Torts and Protracted Litigation Committee, National Conference of State Trial Judges (1996-98); Appointed as Delegate to the National Conference of State Trial Judges on behalf of the State of Washington (1998);  

4.   List the approximate percentage of your time over the last five years you have made appearances in:

% municipal court

% state district court

100	% superior court

% federal district court

% appellate court

% administrative tribunals

5.   Are you now an officer or director of any business enterprise other than your law practice?  If so, what role do you expect to play if elected?

 No   

6.   Have you ever been disciplined or determined to be in breach of professional conduct by any court, administrative agency, bar association, disciplinary committee, judicial conduct commission, or other professional group?  Have you ever had a formal complaint filed against you with the WSBA?  If so for either or both questions, give the particulars, including the outcome.

 No   

Finished!

If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (rebecca@munileague.org).  Mail and fax numbers are listed below.  If the League has not contacted you to schedule an interview, please call the League office at your earliest convenience.

Don’t forget to send the following to the Municipal League:  a resume, a photo, campaign literature, and, if you are an incumbent, constituent newsletters and other materials.  Please use the check-off list on the cover sheet of this packet to indicate which items you have sent.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND GOOD LUCK IN YOUR CAMPAIGN!

THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF KING COUNTY

Candidate Evaluation Coordinator:  Rebecca Cooper

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224                  Phone: 206-622-8333                Email: rebecca@munileague.org

Seattle, WA 98104-1614                        Fax: 425-671-0506                        Website: www.munileague.org