Incumbent Fennessy to face court of appeals attorney Van Winkle in Spokane County judge race; Mungia leads in Supreme Court race

Incumbent Judge Timothy Fennessy will face court of appeals staffer Andrew Van Winkle in the November general election.

Fennessy garnered 37.5% of the vote, while Van Winkle pulled 34.6%. Spokane County Court Commissioner Jerry Scharosh received 19.2% of the vote.

Challenger F. Dayle Andersen endorsed Van Winkle, whose campaign largely criticized Fennessy’s temperament on the bench. Scharosh did not immediately return a phone call late Tuesday evening.

Van Winkle said he was feeling “terrific” after seeing the results come in at the Spokane County Republicans watch party.

“That really puts us in striking distance for November,” he said, noting he thinks it unlikely that people who voted for a challenger would go back to an incumbent.

Fennessy initially didn’t plan to run for re-election but changed his mind after several colleagues on the bench approached him about their concern that his departure would make it full of freshman judges.

Tuesday evening Fennessy acknowledged there was a long way to go to the November general election but said he was excited to continue serving Spokane residents.

“I’m gratified that the citizens seem to feel like I’m worthy of another term, at least early returns,” Fennessy said.

He received a well-qualified rating from the Spokane County Bar Association and was elected presiding judge last year by his bench mates.

The rest of the Superior Court judges were split, with the women endorsing Scharosh and the men either dual endorsing or supporting Fennessy.

Supreme Court

Seattle attorney Salvador “Sal” Mungia will face off against Federal Way Judge Dave Larson in the general election.

Mungia received 41.9% of the vote while Larson received 37.1%.

Mungia raised the most money by far of any of the candidates at over $327,000, with more than 600 endorsements including Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Larson, who challenged sitting justices in 2016 and 2020, has argued Mungia is the chosen candidate by the state’s political elite. He hopes to bring viewpoint diversity to the court and push for unification to make the legal system easier to navigate, he said.

The third and fourth place candidates, Todd Bloom and David R. Shelvey, could not be reached for comment.

Bloom received 17.9%, while Shelvey received 3.8% of the vote.