Newcastle’s Donna Tucker runs for District Court
August 5, 2010
By Tim Pfarr
Newcastle residents may recognize a familiar name on their primary ballots this month. Donna Tucker, a 14-year resident of Olympus, is running for District Court Northeast Electoral District Judge in Position 7.
Tucker, an attorney who co-managed the law office Tucker & Stein P.S. Inc. from 1987 to 2004, began her judicial work in 2000 as a pro tem judge for the Municipal Court of Renton.
Donna Tucker
After taking a step back from her attorney work, she worked as a pro tem judge in King County District Courts as well as with municipal courts for Issaquah, Mercer Island, Kirkland, Kent, Tukwila and Des Moines.
“It’s almost become a full-time job, really,” she said.
Position 7 is one of four new municipal judge positions created by the county earlier this year.
Tucker said she was encouraged to run for District Court judge four years ago by the group Citizens for Judicial Excellence, but she decided not to run because she was heavily invested in her own work at the time.
However, after she stepped back from her own practice, running became a viable option.
She said she hopes to make a positive impact on the system if she is elected, and she said she places priority on being fair and doing the right thing.
“My responsibility is not just to the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law,” she said.
If elected, Tucker could possibly handle Newcastle cases on a regular basis, something she would enjoy.
“I love this community and the people here,” she said. “It would really be an honor.”
In addition to working as an attorney and a judge, Tucker also volunteers as an assistant coach on a youth softball team, and has worked with Senior Services of Seattle and King County in the Senior Rights Assistance program, Victim of Crime Advocates.
She also worked with the Court Monitoring Committees for Redmond and Bellevue, which monitor the King County District Court, and she served* on the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors.
Tucker is running against Larry Mitchell, of Seattle, and Ketu Shah, of Mercer Island, and the top two candidates that emerge from the primary will advance to the general election in November. However, if one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary, he or she is elected to the position.
* This story contains corrected information.
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