SEATTLE – Several state Supreme Court justices are being challenged by property rights advocates who say, the court has not done enough to protect the rights of individual property owners.

KING

Tom Chambers (left), Jeanette Burrage (right)

Usually, the elections for judges don't get that much attention. But not this year. We take a look at the Washington State Supreme Court races with the race for Position 9.

At first, Justice Tom Chambers thought he might be unopposed, but at the very last minute a property-rights attorney put her name on the ballot.

It's called the "sinking ship parking garage" and it's now a symbolic issue in several races for state supreme court.

When the Seattle Monorail Project wanted to build a station in Pioneer Square, the Supreme Court ruled the monorail could force the property owners to sell the entire block.

Property rights advocates say it was government reaching too far.

"When the government runs over some people, that it can come and get the others later, just like in Germany, people just went along with things because they thought they were OK," said Jeanette Burrage.

Attorney Jeanette Burrage is now challenging Justice Tom Chambers who says he had to decide the monorail case on the law and he says there was no evidence the monorail was planning to profit by taking more land than it needed.

"When you politicize judges, and when you sweep judges in and out of office as you do, any other political officer you lose the independence of the judiciary," said Justice Chambers.

Chambers was a private attorney for 30 years, president of the Washington State Bar Association and the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association twice, he was named trial lawyer of the year, and in 2000 he was elected to the Washington State Supreme Court. He calls himself a strong advocate for individual property rights.

"I don't think my opponent has been in the race long enough to really evaluate my record," he said.

Burrage served one term in the Washington State Legislature as a Republican, she worked as an appraiser in the King County Assessor's Office. After law school, she ran for Washington State Supreme Court and lost, served on the Des Moines City Council, then ran for Court of Appeals and lost, but later that same year ran for King County Superior Court judge and won, losing in 2000 in a very close election.

The King County Bar Association rated her "not qualified" five times.

Burrage says those rating are political and she is refusing this year to participate in the evaluation.

"They are seen by a lot of people as being neutral, when in fact, they are not," she said.

"I know that the allegation is: Oh, they're just an elitist group. But who else is going to evaluate you but your own peers?" asked Chambers.

If Burrage's name sounds familiar, she was the judge who ordered two female attorneys to wear skirts instead of pants in her courtroom.

When asked how she felt about this today, she said the whole flap was overblown, but she now believes that pants are OK as long as they are part of a suit.

For his part, Justice Chambers said he sees nothing wrong with women wearing pants in court.

Absentee ballots go out at the end of August. A couple of the Supreme Court races may be decided in the September primary because by state law if any candidate gets more than 50 percent, he or she goes to the general election ballot unopposed.