Candidates tout resumes in Ore. Supreme Court race

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon voters have a rare opportunity to influence the state's highest court as three lawyers vie for one seat on the Supreme Court.

Judicial candidates don't talk about cases they might have to decide, and no party affiliations are listed on the ballot. Instead, two lower-court judges and a longtime attorney have been pitching their experience and achievements, hoping to convince voters that they're the best fit for the job.

Multnomah County Circuit Court judge Robert Baldwin argues that his 11 years on a trial court bench bring a perspective that's underrepresented on the Supreme Court.

Portland attorney Nena Cook says she has the best balance of experience after decades arguing cases and working in a prosecutor's office during law school.

And Oregon Court of Appeals judge Timothy Sercombe says his extensive experience handling appeals cases as lawyer and a judge makes him the most qualified candidate.

Unless one of them gets a majority of the vote in the May 15 election, the top two candidates will go to a runoff in November. The winner will replace Justice Robert "Skip" Durham, who is retiring at the end of his term after 18 years on the bench.

Justice Paul De Muniz also is retiring after 12 years, but only one candidate — David Brewer, the longtime chief judge of the state appeals court — is seeking that seat.

Wide-open judicial races are relatively rare in Oregon, where retiring judges often step down in the middle of a term so the governor can appoint a replacement. Some in the legal community believe the practice helps isolate the judicial branch from politics.

Judge Richard Baldwin has served on the trial-court bench in Portland for 11 years — experience he says is badly needed on the Supreme Court, where justices frequently review trial court proceedings.

He points out that none of the returning justices have trial court experience, although his rivals also point out that Brewer was a Lane County trail court judge and will ensure the court has provide that perspective.

Baldwin said he started Multnomah County's first mental health court and presided over it for three years. The program provides specialized probation services for people with mental illness who have been charged with crimes or convicted.

Before becoming a judge, Baldwin worked in legal aid, providing legal advice to low-income Oregonians.

"You'll see in my background and experience a very strong public service background," Baldwin said. "I've kind of been in the trenches as a lawyer."

His campaign has been endorsed by a number of unions, including the Oregon Education Association, and by the sheriffs of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties.

Nena Cook is an attorney with the Portland law firm Sussman Shank, where she handles a variety of legal issues including employment and business disputes. She has been a pro-tem judge in Multnomah County since 2007, handling certain legal matters on a part-time basis.

The other justices all rose from lower courts, so she could offer a different perspective, Cook said.

She says she's the only candidate who has worked in a prosecutor's office, pointing out that criminal cases comprise a significant portion of the Supreme Court's caseload. She worked for two years as a clerk in the Marion County District Attorney's Office while she was in law school at Willamette University.

Cook was president of the Oregon State Bar in 2005.

"My judicial philosophy...will be to always be prepared, to be respectful of the people who appear before me, to have the humility to understand and consider the viewpoints of my colleagues," Cook said.

Judge Timothy Sercombe says his five years on the bench of the state appeals court prepares him best for the writing, reasoning and collaboration required of a Supreme Court justice.

"I am the only one who has been an appellate judge, and being an appellate judge is the best proving or training ground for being a judge on the Supreme Court, a court of last resort," Sercombe said. There's a reason five of the seven judges of Oregon's high court, and eight of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, rose from appellate courts, he said.

Sercombe worked for three decades as a lawyer in Eugene and Portland, where he represented local governments and other clients in trial and appellate courts. He said that experience would allow him to bring new expertise in municipal and land-use law to the Supreme Court.

Sercombe said he graduated at the top of his class from the University of Oregon's law school and filed his first Supreme Court brief in his first year of practice.