What's your relationship with the legal community — judges, attorneys, the Bar Association?

Respectful and professional — genuinely. I work alongside that community every day and I have a lot of regard for the people who show up to that courthouse to do serious work on behalf of their clients. I will be participating in the Bar Association candidate forum in August and I am thrilled that they thought to invite the challenger into that arena.

But I want to be honest about something. The legal community and the general public experience the Clerk's office very differently. Attorneys know how to navigate the system. They know which forms to file, which deadlines matter, who to call when something goes wrong. They have relationships inside the office built over years. For them, the system mostly works.

The people I think about most are everyone else. The resident showing up to file a protection order who doesn't know where to start. The person going through a divorce without an attorney who can't figure out which form applies to their situation. The juror who showed up three hours early for jury duty because nobody told them what to expect and they were worried about parking.

Those are the people the Clerk's office exists to serve. Not just the legal community — every resident of Kitsap County equally. My goal is to make sure the office is as accessible and clear to someone walking in for the first time as it is to an attorney who's been practicing here for twenty years. Right now there's a gap. Closing it is a core part of why I'm running.