Spokane Judge Fennessy unseated by court of appeals attorney after eight years

A judge who previously unseated an incumbent eight years ago was unseated himself by a Washington Court of Appeals attorney in the 2024 election.

Andrew Van Winkle, a senior staff attorney at the Washington State Court of Appeals Division III, has defeated Spokane Superior Court Judge Timothy Fennessy.

“In every election, only one candidate can prevail. I have experienced this fact from both sides of the outcome now. It has been an honor to serve Spokane County on the Superior Court, a pinnacle of my legal career, over the past eight years. I am grateful to my supporters, colleagues and family,” Fennessy wrote in a statement to The Spokesman-Review. “As I complete my term, I remain committed to fulfilling my duties and service to the community. I wish the best for the Court and its dedicated staff.”

Van Winkle has worked in the Washington Legislature, clerked at the Court of Appeals, worked as a deputy prosecutor in Chelan County, a court commissioner and has been a senior staff attorney in the Court of Appeals since 2019. He won against Fennessy by an extra 5% of the county’s vote. The reason for the win, Van Winkle believes, could be attributed to how he decided to spend his money and message during his campaign.

“I started hitting TV and radio hard. And frankly, I also gave people a reason to vote against him,” Van Winkle said. “When you go after an incumbent, it’s not enough to be qualified. You need a reason for change.”

On top of a push for more accommodation of mental health issues in court, Van Winkle’s first goal when he becomes a Spokane Superior Court judge is do as much as he can with existing funds, like getting rid of the rule that requires people to give physical copies of legal documents to judges instead of electronic copies. It’s about access to justice, he said.

“We make it harder for people to get to court. (The rule) requires people to make an extra trip because those documents need to be given to the judge. And another trip for a hearing. That’s more time off work, and it could be hours if you’re coming from a different county,” Van Winkle said.

Fennessy gained his law degree from Gonzaga University in the ‘80s and practiced until he challenged former Judge Greg Sypolt in the 2016 election and won. Back then, Fennessy said the court was not as democratic as it should be because judges retire mid-term, and their seats are filled by appointments, leading them to go unchallenged in the next election.

“Practicing lawyers are often discouraged from running against sitting judges,” he said in 2016, right before he unseated Sypolt. Now that Van Winkle has unseated Fennessy, it appears to be a rarity, says longtime Spokane attorney Jeffry Finer.

“It’s unusual. Incumbents have an advantage,” he said. “It would be uncommon to lose the bench.”

Van Winkle said he would encourage judges to show more leadership about mental health issues when presented with a civil or family law case. Because judges oversee multiple types of cases, “that’s where you can get change to happen,” he said.

The lesson of mental health awareness, he said, has not bled over to other areas in the justice system from criminal law. Criminal lawyers have learned that lesson and what mental illness can do to someone, he added.

“Lawyers who do civil and family law, they don’t have the same understanding with mental illness and what is relevant or not,” Van Winkle said. “Sometimes people will use it to embarrass someone, and that’s not OK. I want it changed.”