Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

that said, “I didn’t mean you.”
Hughes: Let’s get you onto the State Supreme Court. You’ve been on the King County
bench since 1976. Then in 1980, Supreme Court Justice Charles T. Wright died at the same
time that Fred Dore was leaving a Court of Appeals slot to join the high court. Then there’s
this comedy of errors.
Dimmick: Right.
Hughes: Governor Dixy Lee Ray interviews you. It’s at the tail-end of her term as governor.
Tell me all about that.
Dimmick: I’m thinking she’s talking about putting me on the Court of Appeals because
that’s where Barbara Durham is, and that’s where I wanted to go. In the meantime the Bar
Association had already got together and I was cleared for an appellate position. So I go
down there and talk to Dixy Lee Ray. She’s talking Supreme Court, and I was talking about
the Court of Appeals. … She talked about them both, and what it was like to make these
appointments to these various positions, and we just had a nice chat.
Hughes: This was in the Governor’s Office?
Dimmick: Yes.
Hughes: Is Jacques, her beloved poodle, lapping at your ankles?
Dimmick: No, he wasn’t there that day. (laughs) Just her legal representative. I can’t
remember who he was, but he was someone I had known. This was a fellow who had been
a District Court judge in the past. I can’t think of his name.
Hughes: Had you met Dixy Lee Ray before?
Dimmick: No.
Hughes: And what was your impression of her?
Dimmick: She was great. She invited down all the women judges. She interviewed every
woman judge she could get her hands on at that time for this position. Whether you
applied or didn’t apply, she wanted to talk to a lot of women lawyers, a lot of women
judges.
Hughes: But this is toward the end of her term in office. She loses the battle for renomination
to Jim McDermott. And John Spellman was elected governor.
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