For a time, Washington State Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Madsen thought her runaway lead over two opponents in the August primary election might send her unopposed into the general election.
She was unsure in early August whether old election rules for judges — which said candidates who got more than 50 percent of vote in the primary didn’t have to face a challenger in the general election — still applied in this year’s election.
Now Madsen says she’s accepting the opinion of the Secretary of State’s Office that, yes, she will face second-place primary finisher Greg Zempel in November.
“I’m not prepared to dispute that with the secretary of state, so that looks like what’s going to happen,” she said last week.