While Judge Michael Hurtado has done some great things on the bench—he's helped shape Seattle's excellent mental-health court, for one—we think it's time that he take a break. At our endorsement meeting, Hurtado dismissed several accounts of angry courtroom outbursts that led to two admonitions from the judicial-conduct commission, retracted his previously stated intent to leave the bench, and now says he has regained his "fire in the belly" for his job. It helps that his challenger, Karen Donohue, isn't some know-nothing greenhorn; she's served as pro tem judge since 1994, and she has a four-point plan to modernize Seattle's archaic court system (ideas include electronic record keeping so that judges can actually have all the facts on hand, unlike the current paper-centric system). Bring the courts into the future. Vote Donohue.

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