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David Shelvey
David Shelvey ran for election for the Position 2 judge of the Washington Supreme Court. He lost in the primary on August 6, 2024.
Shelvey completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
David Shelvey served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1981 to 1982. He earned a bachelor's degree from Herzing University in 2007 and a law degree from Cooley Law School in 2012. He earned graduated from the City University of Seattle in 2013. His career experience includes working as an attorney at law. He has been affiliated with Fraternal Order of the Eagles-Tacoma Aerie #3.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Washington Supreme Court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 2
Sal Mungia defeated Dave Larson in the general election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 2 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sal Mungia (Nonpartisan)  | 50.1 | 1,644,253 |
 | Dave Larson (Nonpartisan) | 49.4 | 1,624,309 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.5 | 16,654 | ||
| Total votes: 3,285,216 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington State Supreme Court Position 2
Sal Mungia and Dave Larson defeated Todd Bloom and David Shelvey in the primary for Washington State Supreme Court Position 2 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sal Mungia (Nonpartisan) | 43.4 | 762,797 |
| ✔ | | Dave Larson (Nonpartisan) | 36.4 | 640,116 |
 | Todd Bloom (Nonpartisan) | 16.3 | 286,298 | |
 | David Shelvey (Nonpartisan) | 3.4 | 59,676 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 7,347 | ||
| Total votes: 1,756,234 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Michelle Adams (Nonpartisan)
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Shelvey in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
David Shelvey completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shelvey's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Let's keep Washington as our home and welcome visitors. We have so much to offer - beautiful coastline with whales, cities in the woods with abundant wildlife, and many ma and pa businesses that are the backbone of our economy. Our legislature writes our laws, but justices should not interpret laws so that we want to move away or visitors stay away. As a justice, I will be open to discussing any decisions we need to make that may harm our citizens or visitors.
- Let's keep improving Washington so that it is a safe state to live in. We are not the worst state to live in, but we could be the best. As attorneys learn in law school, we are here to protect the rights of others. As a justice, I will want to see that our rights are not abused, and I will be open to discussing this.
- To wholeheartedly speak my opinion, but not cause anger by the way I do it. It is an honor and a privilege to wear a black robe. As a Justice, I will keep in mind I am held to a higher standard, whether I am on or off the bench. To always act in such a way that I set a good example that no one who voted for me should regret it.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Shelvey’s campaign website stated the following:
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Why I, David Shelvey, Wants To Transition From Attorney To Justice Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer, aka Ann Landers (pictured), said, "Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them." Has there been a time when you did not act and later said, "I had an opportunity to do that, but now it is just a missed opportunity." Whether that opportunity was to buy a specific stock, patent your invention that someone else is now selling, or [insert your missed opportunity]. Some of my missed opportunities were missed because I was lazy or thought I could never accomplish that, so why try? Esther Lederer also said, "People who care about each other enjoy doing things for one another." Here is a rare chance in my life. An opportunity to serve the people of Washington. How rare? There are 4,831,157 registered voters in this state, of which 26,348 are currently active attorneys who potentially could run for a judicial office. That works out to .5% or one-half of 1 percent are eligible to be elected by the voters. The governor's appointment is the only other way to become a county or state judicial officer. I am inspired by the thought, "In life, you must take chances. Some will turn out to be good, while others will be not so good. But you'll never know until you try." Running for judicial office has consumed a lot of my time from my law practice (which I cannot practice law if elected) due to campaign calls, texts, emails, interviews, questionaries, financial reports, meetings, researching, updating my calendar, and creating a task list for tasks like building this website for you. My tasks list keeps on growing. What a learning experience this has been! It boils down to the fact that I would have never known if I could become a Washington State Supreme Court Justice unless I ran, lest I say not running was just another missed opportunity to talk about.
More recently, term limits for judicial officers have received much support from various political parties. If elected for justice, I myself plan on keeping to two terms (unless I get a lot of support to run for another term). The issue I see with judicial term limits is taking the chance of replacing a judge with an attorney who turns out not to be as good at decision-making as the judge s/he replaced who is good at decision making. Of course, when you vote, this is a chance you take. When the governor appoints a judge, s/he does this based on a detailed questionnaire and references that can be contacted. When it comes to election time, judges rarely run opposed. The public rarely knows how the judge's decision-making has been. Should the public know how attorneys view judges' decision-making abilities based on outcomes of hearings and trials (transparency)? Could a solution be an online, confidential survey for attorneys to rate judges they've been before, which could help the public be informed before voting and encourage other attorneys to run for a judicial position? There might be statistics that show how many of each judge's cases went to the court of appeals and were reversed (accountability). Should the Washington Supreme Court Justices have term limits? Good question. If elected, I would be open to hearing suggestions.
Unlike legislative or executive office races, judicial candidates are subject to the Code of Judicial Conduct. Specifically, a judicial candidate should run in public elections as nonpartisan. Nonpartisan means engaging in an activity inconsistent with the independence, integrity, or impartiality of the judiciary office should be avoided. Engaging does not mean a judicial candidate cannot do interviews or fill out questionnaires sent by political parties. They can do this, providing they do not take a position, provide false or misleading allegations, or impair the fairness of pending or impending judicial proceedings. When taking the Oath of Attorney, Washington attorneys declare, 1. I am fully subject to the laws of the State of Washington and the laws of the United States and will abide by the same, and 2. I will support the Constitution of the State of Washington and the Constitution of the United States. Taking this oath means judicial candidates cannot promise potential voters much more than, “If elected, I will follow the law.” Which, if elected, I plan to do. I could factually state there are no state laws governing riding lawnmowers driven on public streets, only case law. I could even ask you if the legislature should pass a law regulating the street usage of riding lawnmowers, as long as I do not take a position. Judicial candidates may appear at and speak at political functions and ask for endorsements. However, endorsements send a message to the public of a candidate’s acceptance of a particular political agenda, possibly limiting a judge’s ability to hear future cases. For example, if the Electric Party endorsed David Shelvey and I was elected to the Supreme Court, and a case came before me that, just by chance, was to be titled Water Party v. Electric Party, without even reading it, I should not hear the case (recuse myself).
Righting A Wrong For more than ten years, our Washington Supreme Court has been reviewing and setting right wrong convictions, some that their predecessors have ruled, and some cases are over 100 years old. Examples include a Seattle cemetery that could lawfully deny grieving black parents the right to bury their infant in a section of the cemetery called “Babyland” because it was for whites only. Our Supreme Court heard the case and ruled against the parents. This wrong has been righted. However, a 2021 survey found that a black person in Washington is 4.7 times more likely to be incarcerated than a white person. There has also been mistreatment of Native Americans. Chief Jim Wallahee (photo courtesy of Northwest Room, Spokane Public Library), a Yakima citizen, in 1927 was convicted of killing a deer on government property because he did not have a state-issued hunting license. Even though a treaty allowed this, the court said the treaty was void, and he was just an occupant. Another Native American illegally convicted was Alec Towessnute. Although the treaty allowed him to fish, in 1916 he was convicted of fishing without a state fishing license. Both cases have recently been reversed. Another case that our Supreme Court reversed is State v. Joseph Mario Zamora. Zamora, who is of Mexican descent and a United States citizen, was arrested in 2017 by a neighbor’s mistaken report of him vehicle prowling. The police confronted Zamora and, based on suspicion, took him down. He was handcuffed, hog-tied, and laid face down in the snow with two officers restraining him. When paramedics arrived he was not breathing and had no pulse. One of the officers sustained an injury to his hand from punching Zamora in the back of the head multiple times. Even though Zamora had a lengthy arrest record, the prosecutor chose a jury based on racial bias against Mexicans illegally crossing the board. Joseph Zamora was charged and convicted of two counts of third-degree assault of a police officer, which the Court of Appeals affirmed. He was imprisoned for 22 months. In 2023, the Washington Supreme reversed and vacated the convictions based on the prosecutor’s misconduct implicated racial bias. Just recently, our Supreme Court made it clear that the Sunnyside police (located within Yakima County) unlawfully evicted at least 43 mostly Latinx tenants, of whom were women or families with children. As a justice, I would support cleaning up the past and righting wrongs.
Abortion has been legal in Washington since 1970. I do not take a stance but will support and abide by the same. I do have a personal challenge I think about. I have hypertension and high cholesterol. I take atenolol (it does normalize my blood pressure) and atorvastatin (bottle to the left) (it does normalize my cholesterol). If I were to become pregnant (practically impossible), there would be a higher risk of miscarriage than expected, or my baby may be born with skeletal malformation. If I were to stop taking my statin, data shows that the risk of stroke, heart attack, and death within four years of stopping statin is high. I am glad I do not need to decide what to do. Johns Hopkins University's June 2024 research found since Texas' abortion ban, the infant death rate has increased, and more infants died of congenital disabilities before their first birthday than compared to other states that have legalized abortion.
Although I would pass a drug test, I do not take a stance. There have been controversies discussed in the lawyer lounge regarding our state's legalization of marijuana and Federal law providing possession or use is illegal. During one of the discussions, I was told by an attorney that someone entering the Federal District Courthouse in Tacoma set off the screening alarm due to a brass pipe containing marijuana residue. The individual was arrested and charged with possession of a federally controlled substance.
This is a picture I took of Mt Rainier, a beautiful view from when I lived in Puyallup, Washington. The field has just been turned, and the farmer will be arriving soon to plant vegetables, which will later be made available at the market and grocery stores. But what if the farmer planted grapes and opened up a winery at the street entrance to the property? King County v. Friends of Sammamish Valley, et al. was heard on May 21, 2024, but no opinion has been filed. So, I cannot take a position. The case is important because King County has been shifting agricultural land from farmers to wineries. Obviously, King County receives more taxes on bottles of wine sold (a taxable product) than vegetables taken to market (tax-free). The outcome of this case is important because the Supreme Court needs to decide if this harms the farmers and farmlands and costs to bring fruits and vegetables to market. This, of course, affects what the consumer pays at the till. Another question is whether it makes economic sense to do this.
That's me speaking at an Eagle's District 7 meeting. I choose the Eagles because we believe in a Supreme Being and do not interfere with an individual's religious beliefs. As the Worthy President of Tacoma Eagles Aerie Number Three, I enjoy promoting fundraising events where our aerie is engaged—notably the Arthritis Foundation and the Parkinson's Disease Foundation. I am also responsible for enforcing the laws of the Order and deciding upon questions where there is equal division. How did I become president? Last year, in May 2023, I was asked by the officers to be president. I was hesitant since I had never been a president of a nonprofit. With their agreement to assist me in learning to do something new, I accepted the nomination. Over the last year, many have mentored me, and I have learned so much about decision-making and how my choices affect others. I have learned first to identify and define the problem clearly and then suggest possible solutions to the problem. Before making a choice, I must understand how my choices may affect the individual(s) coming to me with the problem and the effect on others. If the officers and members did not think I was being a good president, they would not have renominated me in May 2024. If elected as justice, I will continue to practice my decision-making skills at the Supreme Court.
Although I am not a scientist, I agree with other nonscientists who have said there is circumstantial evidence of remarkable similarities when comparing the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex to a kangaroo. Researchers say that there are two reasons why adult kangaroos have really small arms. One is because, at birth, short arms are needed for the joey to crawl up to their mother’s pouch. The second reason is that kangaroos have small arms and large, muscular hind legs, which allow them to hop up to 35 feet and travel up to 35 mph. Shifting from Australia to North America, researchers say that when a T. rex was born, it was the size of a medium dog, which is about 3 feet long, and covered in a coat of downy feathers. Their arms were also longer in proportion to their bodies than in adults. The young were vulnerable and had a high mortality rate. Could it be that the growing T. rex hopped away from their enemies and then later in their life, at 40 feet tall, ate their enemies, and maybe even when fully grown, still hopped around? These two examples are the difference between circumstantial and evidentiary evidence. Evidentiary evidence is something that, during a trial, someone can testify it is something they have witnessed. E.g., a kangaroo can hop up to 35 feet. Circumstantial evidence is indirect evidence and based on Circumstantial evidence is indirect evidence that is based on a logical inference that the fact exists. For example, no evidence exists where someone saw or recorded T. rex had small arms to help them hop, but compared to kangaroos, a logical inference is that the fact possibly exists. In the courtroom, judges almost always have to decide if there is enough evidence to support circumstantial evidence. Is it possible, and what is the harm if it is admitted? Will it pass the appellant judges and Supreme Court justice? Or will it be sent back needing more for a reasonably minded person to believe it is evidence? [2] |
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| —David Shelvey’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Washington State Supreme Court Position 2 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 9, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ David for Justice, “Home,” accessed July 22, 2024
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