Seattle Municipal Court Judge Position No. 5
Seattle city, Washington
My vote power
Above average
Election date
August 4, 2026 · Primary election
How do we calculate my vote power?
What goes into the rating: Representation: how much weight one vote carries here compared with a statewide vote — the smaller the district, the more each vote counts. Decisiveness: how likely this race is to be close, based on past results or current analyst ratings, plus the number of candidates.
Representation: Above average · 60 out of 100
This district is a good deal smaller than its state, so each vote here carries more weight than a vote in a statewide race. About 754,195 people live here.
Show the representation math
score = 50 + 50 × ln(state population ÷ this district's) ÷ ln(50,000) = 50 + 50 × ln(7,816,116 ÷ 754,195) ÷ ln(50,000) = 60.81, measured against a statewide vote in WA (grades: 66+ high, 55+ above average, 33+ average, otherwise low; a statewide race is the 50 baseline)
Decisiveness: Unknown
No analyst ratings or past results for this contest yet.
Above average representation → My vote power: Above average.
Some data is missing, so this rating is based on partial information.
About this office
- Deciding traffic tickets and fines
- Deciding small claims cases
- Ruling on city code violations
Affects: Public Safety and Crime Control, Housing Affordability, Civil Rights,
Candidates
Gabe Rothstein
AdvancedNonpartisan · advanced
Gabe Rothstein has spent over twenty years as a public defender and two years as a pro tem judge. He is described as a big-hearted career public defender who believes in recovery, redemption and giving second chances.
Records: Legal Competence 2 for
Garmon Newsom
AdvancedNonpartisan · advanced
Garmon Newsom is a Seattle Municipal Court pro tem judge with more than 30 years of criminal and civil legal experience. He previously served as Burien city attorney, a municipal attorney, and a prosecutor, and his campaign biography reports more than 75 civil and criminal trials.
Records: Legal Competence 1 for
Lindsay Calkins
Did not advanceNonpartisan · lost
Lindsay Calkins has worked for judges, in big law firms, as a public defender and now as founding partner of her own firm. She is admitted to practice in all Washington State courts and in the Ninth Circuit and the Federal Circuit.
Records: Legal Competence 2 for
Results
Advanced · Certified
Winners: Gabe Rothstein (Nonpartisan), Garmon Newsom (Nonpartisan)
Source: cdn.kingcounty.gov · researched September 12, 2026
Sources: kingcounty.gov · cdn.kingcounty.gov