Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Dimmick: Maybe a hundred. I don’t remember. I’ve blotted it out.
Hughes: How did you think you did?
Dimmick: Well, I figured it was just like any other test. It’s a crapshoot. You just don’t
know.
Hughes: Are you a good test taker?
Dimmick: I did learn some things from the bigger boys in law school. You don’t have to
know the answers. You’ve got to know the issues. … So always before I took a test I would
go get the restatement of the law, of the class that I was just studying for and I would have
a big bold print of what the issues were. Then I would keep that in my head so I was able
to raise the issues. I think I did pretty well on tests.
Hughes: So by then you’re pretty confident. You know you can make it.
Dimmick: Well, you’re never confident when you take the Bar because it’s three years
of education they’re testing you for in three days. So you never know. You take a Bar
refresher course and you say, “Did I learn that?” You know, “Ah, did I ever take that class?”
No, nobody’s ever confident going into the Bar.
Hughes: Were there memorable cases during your time as an assistant attorney general?
Dimmick: No, I don’t think I ever had any of those goodies. I just had “sue Weyerhaeuser;
pick up your slash.” That kind of thing, or resist somebody trying to get out from the
penitentiary on habeas corpus. That kind of thing.
Hughes: Did you form any early impressions about criminal behavior?
Dimmick: Not then. I got more of that when I was a prosecuting attorney.
Hughes: It’s funny, how things always seem to overlap when you’re researching history.
I’m interviewing you right on the heels of interviewing Charles Smith, and you’re
contemporaries who had similar experiences early on in your careers.
Dimmick: Yes, we worked for Chuck Carroll for a number of years.
Hughes: I want to get to that. But back to Attorney General Don Eastvold: Did you have
any real contact with him as a young assistant?
Dimmick: He was roaming around the state; wandering (to test the waters) for governor,
and that kind of thing. I saw him in the office some times, but Bernie Lonctot was the
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