I urge you to join me in voting for Charlie Wiggins for justice of the State Supreme Court. He is a highly respected lawyer and he has worked to pass laws limiting campaign contributions in judicial races and pushed for rules prohibiting judges from hearing cases involving parties who gave large campaign contributions supporting the judge’s election.

Compare this record to the incumbent: Justice Sanders was disciplined by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for meeting with criminal defendants who had cases pending before our Supreme Court. He wrote a majority opinion in a decision handed down by our State Supreme Court that directly benefited him in a pending case in which he was a party.

Justice Sanders joined in a brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court that supported that it was proper for a West Virginia justice who had received $3 million in campaign donations from the CEO of a corporation to rule on a case in which the corporation was a party. In criminal cases before the Washington Supreme Court, where the court is divided on how to rule, he has sided with criminal defendants 94 percent of the time.

Linda Gabriel

Poulsbo