Doug Schafer's Supreme Court Candidacy
Replies to Interested Groups' Questions
(I write in the third person so you seen my name often, hopefully to remember it.)Note: Items 1 - 3 were from Doug's 2000 election-year campaign; items 4 and beyond are in 2002.
1. A group named Women in Unity requested information. Its letter forwarding its questionnaire stated:
Click here to read Doug's 2000 reply to Women in Unity."Women in Unity is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to develop and advocate public positions which we use to educate and disseminate information on issues which affect the AfricanAmerican community, regardless of political affiliation."Women in Unity does not endorse or give financial assistance to any candidate for any office. We use the enclosed questionnaire to assist in developing our Report Card Ratings. These Ratings are distributed throughout the African American community in neighborhood newspapers, churches, and senior centers to assist citizens in casting informed votes."
2. A group named Washington NARAL PAC requested information. Its letterhead identified its mission as:
Click here to read Doug's 2000 response to Washington NARAL PAC, which subsequently endorsed him."To develop and sustain a constituency that uses the political process to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion."3. A group named Washington State Women's Political Caucus invited Doug to express his views on issues of particular concern to its members. Click here to read that group's questionnaire and Doug's 2000 responses.
The items above were in 2000.
The items below were in 2002. 4 The King County Democrats Central Committee asked Doug and other judicial candidates to complete a questionnaire before their 15-minute interviews, held on 8/10/02. To see Doug's questionnaire, click here.
5. The Seattle Metropolitan Elections Committee (SEAMEC), that rates candidates for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community, invited Doug to complete its questionnaire. Here it is. For those to whom GLBT issues are a litmus test, here's a link to Doug's website from the spring of 2002 about the then proposed Tacoma GLBT-nondiscrimination ordinance (click here), and here are some e-mails that Doug exchanged with others on such issues (click here). That fall, Doug doorbelled with friends from his church to help defeat an initiative that would have repealed that ordinance. Here's the outstanding website of Doug's second cousin (click here), a literary gay long-haul truck driver. Here's the Washington State Supreme Court's rule (click here) that, since October, 2000, bars all Washington lawyers from discriminating based on sexual orientation in any of their professional activities. In advance of the 2004 primary election, SEAMEC rated Doug a "4" on a scale of 1 to 5.
6. The Washington Coalition of Crime Victim Advocates (WCCVA), that rates candidates for the crime victims and crime victim advocates community, invited Doug to complete its questionnaire. Here it is.
7. A man named Dean Isaacson (who publishes under the name Judicial Forum an extreme fundamentalist Christian newsletter called Tandem Vincitur (click here and click here)) rates judicial candidates on the degree that they share his commitment to Biblical Law. He sought Doug's response to his questionnaire. Here it is.
8. The League of Women Voters of Seattle, that informs voters about supreme court candidates by publishing their 50- to75-word answers to three questions, sought Doug's replies to its questionnaire. Here it is.
9. The Pink Pistols, that rates candidates for those in the GLBT community who combat hate crime by arming members with handguns and training them in handgun use, sought Doug's replies to its questionnaire. Here it is.
10. The Washington Association of REALTORS e-mailed a long questionnaire with a short turn-around time. I did not complete it, due to other demands on my time. I acknowledge having no significant career experience concerning water and property rights. Those who regard that as their litmus test will not likely be satisfied with a candidate who can only promise to be openminded, thorough, and as true to the laws and the state and federal constitutions as I can be. Here is that questionnaire for those interested in seeing it.
11. Nobody has asked Doug any questions about public schools at any appearance to date (9/14/02). He attended public schools until law school, and his three sons attended Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) from kindergarten through high school (the youngest now being a senior). In 1989, Doug participated on a TPS action team considering a somewhat controversial "schools of choice" proposal. He wrote an opinion piece that was published in The News Tribune (click here) that reflected his views on quality public schools, on choice/magnet schools, and on racial and ethnic diversity. Doug's former wife was, for many years, a daily volunteer at their sons' schools and is now a public school teacher. (Marriage and family life suffers when the breadwinner becomes determined to root out corruption in the bar and judicial system -- but someone has to do it.)