Democracy is all the rage these days

by Lindsay Thompson, Bar News Editor

If you read the Opportunities for Service section in this rag, you'll know that the terms of five members of the Board of Governors end in September. Shortly people can file their petitions to run for those seats.

I mention this because I am struck by the disconnect between perceptions of the Board and reality. The perception of many is it's a bunch of geezers from big law firms, at once incredibly reactionary, unresponsive, and hidebound, and at the same time so whimsically with it and liberal, so attuned to the last PC effusions of Blue State Depravity, that Howard Dean and Marilyn Manson are phoning up all the time for tips on keeping up.

The conclusion that follows, of course, is that there's nothing to be done. Can't change them, any more than you can expect the governor from the Fifth Congressional District to be from anywhere besides Spokane.

But then, if you look at the election results, year in and year out, a remarkable thing can be seen. Most races, most of the time, aren't races at all. Only one person files, and that person wins. When my friend Jenny Durkan finished her term on the Board, no one filed at all.

That meant the BOG had to appoint someone. And whaddya know? Seventeen people applied.

Not surprising, at one level. It probably looks a lot easier to win seven votes on the BOG than to canvass the lawyers who live in your district. But as a practical matter, it's a rare day when over half the voters in any BOG district cast ballots.

So either way you're not looking at having to chase after that many votes. And as a candidate, you can get a list of mailing labels for your constituency from WSBA at no cost. In 1998, the list wasn't free, but it was discounted — buying that list was all I spent — $135 — and that was for 7,200 names in the old 7th District, which has since been divided into three.

I sent e-mails to friends in all the Seattle firms where I knew anyone and asked them if they'd either send an e-mail to their colleagues endorsing me, or forward one from me to all of them. Where there were lots of members in one place — prosecutors' offices, government agencies — I ran out a one-page flyer, affixed labels, and sent them by the regular messenger service to those offices, where they got distributed with the mail.

So it's easy to get something out to the voting public. Or, if that sounds too burdensome, you can just file, sit back, and await the call of destiny. That, too, has been known to work.

Once you win, there's some helpful orientation on begin gubernatorial, and you get a big book in advance of every meeting with background on the things the Board will be asked to consider. You get to travel around the state some and meet lawyers in other places. This is really informative. WSBA staff book the hotels and provide for meals, and you get reimbursed for travel, so while the job does take some time, the out of pocket is minimal.

Governors have less power than some members think, but more than one might suppose. If you think a point of view isn't being represented, you can appoint people with it to important committees. You get input on court rule changes and any number of other issues that affect us day to day as lawyers.

Some friends and I put together a plan that increased the size of the Board of Governors by three members in 2001, and that has helped drive a stake through the heart of the "old elevator lawyers run the board" idea. The average age of the current board is 43. Four members are under 40. The youngest is 30. Three members have children born in 2004; in December, along with the annual Board photo, this year they had the "Board Babies" photograph.

So it's not Alva Long's Board of Governors any more. Why not make it yours?