Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Hughes: But too modest by a turn, I think. Her modesty and her unpretentiousness.
I asked, “Judge, do you have any pictures?” She said, “Oh yeah, I’ll have them dig out
some stuff.” And she sends me off with two notebooks of stuff, including a drawing of this
knockout 23-year-old waterskiing. … So tell me about Carolyn Dimmick. Is what you see
what you get?
Lasnik: Totally, and I think the thing that’s underestimated about her, especially in the
state Supreme Court … Being the first woman on the state Supreme Court, you know that
is a tough place to suddenly change. Sandra Day O’Connor did it a year later with the U.S.
Supreme Court. But the kind of person who the first is, is always so important to how it’s
going to be perceived, and how it’s going to be received. And I think just as Justice Sandra
Day O’Connor turned out to be a remarkable pick for Ronald Reagan, Carolyn Dimmick
turned out to be the perfect person because she was able to make her male colleagues
adjust and accept without ever making them feel put upon, or under attack, or anything.
Hughes: A man’s woman and a woman’s woman?
Lasnik: You’ve seen it. And you’ve seen it in newsroom, right?
Hughes: Absolutely.
Lasnik: Carolyn just set them at ease, and made it so much easier for Barbara Durham,
who came after, to the point where you end up with a majority …
Hughes: They had a five-member majority from 2003-2005.
Lasnik: There again too, she was a saint to Barbara Durham in those years when she
started to decline. I mean she’s a very loyal friend; she is a tremendous colleague. She was
chief judge here for three years. And on the state Supreme Court I think she was able to
forge alliances with people from both the liberal wing, like Jim Dolliver…
Hughes: You’d think if you just read the clippings that she was a doctrinaire conservative.
Lasnik: She never was. And the thing that people always came away talking about with
her was she’s not the kind of judge you come away talking about her intellectual capacity.
It’s there but it doesn’t jump out at you as much as the graciousness, the courtesy, the
respect, the relaxed manner, and things like that, which are much more important in a
lot of ways. I’m not saying she didn’t have tremendous intellectual power, but she is so
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