Gabe Rothstein for Judge

ROTHSTEIN 2026 • SEATTLE MUNICIPAL COURT

Courtrooms only work when judges listen.

Gabe has spent over twenty years as a public defender and two years as a pro tem judge. He's running for Seattle Municipal Court.

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ABOUT

Over twenty years in the courtroom.

A public defender and pro tem judge for Seattle Municipal Court.

For more than twenty years, Gabe Rothstein has spent his career standing beside people during some of the hardest moments of their lives. Since becoming a Public Defender in 2005, he has served in nearly every job a trial-level defender can hold: misdemeanors, felonies, drug treatment court, misdemeanor supervisor, lead of the juvenile court unit, and now the civil commitment unit.

Over the course of his career Gabe has tried more than seventy cases to verdict. He Chairs the Washington State Bar's Character and Fitness Board, which vets people seeking admission to practice law in Washington. He sits on the Board of Holman Recovery Center, an inpatient treatment facility in Arlington. He also takes after-hours calls on the statewide Youth Access to Counsel Line, so that kids who've been arrested have a lawyer on the phone before they're questioned.

For Gabe, the work has never been about titles. It has always been about people. Listening carefully, earning trust, and helping others navigate a system that can feel overwhelming.

Since 2024, Gabe has served as a judge pro tempore in multiple District Courts in King County including Seattle, Burien, Redmond, Kent, and Shoreline as well as Everett Municipal Court. He has presided over numerous Court Calendars including Small Claims Trials and Pretrials, Vehicle Impound Hearings, Contested Hearings, Criminal Calendars, and Jail Calendars.

These experiences have reinforced what Gabe has learned over two decades in court rooms: a judge can be patient, decisive, and clear at the same time. Every person who walks into a courtroom deserves to leave understanding what happened, why it happened, and that they were heard by the court.

That belief is why Gabe is running for Seattle Municipal Court.

PRIORITIES

A court that hears you.

Twenty years defending people in Washington courtrooms and two on the bench as a pro tem judge have taught Gabe what a fair courtroom looks like in practice. He has seen the difference a thoughtful judge can make and how people react when they don't feel rushed, ignored, or confused. These are the values Gabe will bring to Seattle Municipal Court.

Listening to the people the system talks over

Gabe has spent more than two decades watching how a courtroom changes when a judge slows down, listens carefully, and explains what's happening. Even when the outcome is difficult, people deserve to understand the process and know they were treated with dignity and respect.

Everyone deserves to be heard. The victim who waited months for a hearing. The defendant who is unsophisticated in the system. The pro se litigant in small claims trying to argue a case without a lawyer.

That's the floor for any courtroom Gabe runs.

Pretrial detention shouldn't decide your case

Too often people remain in jail simply because they cannot afford bail. When that happens, pressure builds quickly, jobs are lost, families are disrupted, and people often plead guilty just to go home. As Gabe wrote in his judicial application, that "is simply not justice."

Gabe believes that release decisions should turn on what they're supposed to turn on: whether somebody is likely to come back to court, and whether they pose a danger. Not whether they have sufficient resources to afford bail.

Treatment over punishment

Many cases that come through Seattle Municipal Court are connected to substance abuse, mental health challenges, or both. Gabe has seen firsthand how treatment can create better outcomes, not only for the person struggling, but for victims, families and the broader community.

Through his work as a Treatment Court Attorney and his work with Holman Recovery Center, Gabe understands that accountability and treatment are not opposing ideas. When treatment becomes part of the solution, fewer people return to court and few victims are harmed.

As Gabe often says, "the opposite of addiction is connection."

Safety for victims, fairness for everyone

Gabe has lost clients who were victims of violence. One was only 16 years old. He knows what it costs a family when somebody gets hurt, and he knows that victims need the same things everyone in court needs: a judge who listens carefully, treats everyone fairly, and moves cases forward without unnecessary delay.

A courtroom should be a place where people feel respected, where decisions are clear, and where justice is delivered with both accountability and humanity.

That is the kind of Judge that Gabe Rothstein strives to be.

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