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SPOKANE, Wash. -- New district court judges are competing for your vote in Spokane County.

The court files more than 62,000 cases a year and impacts numerous lives in various ways. Domestic violence victims, traffic infractions and misdemeanor crimes all come before a judge in district court. It's a unique court, and the two candidates running for position three say they're the best for the position.

"District court is the front porch of our criminal justice system," said Jenny Zappone, one candidate in the race. "This is the place most people are going to interact."

"The most serious cases we see in district court are driving under the influence and your domestic violence cases, so it makes sense we would treat those people a little bit differently," said Eric Dooyema who's also running in the election.

Jenny Zappone has worked for a decade in the county prosecutor's office, saying community safety is key to her campaign.

"What I'm hearing in our community is they feel there's no respect for the law, and there's no accountability," she said.

Eric Dooyema already works closely with the current district judges as court commissioner. He says his job wouldn't change much but still needs to run in this election.

"Right now, there is no funding for the commissioner position in 2023, so really to keep the job I have, I need to run for judge," Dooyema added.

Both candidates tell 4 News Now, they'd like to see a special court created for domestic violence victims and a more need-based approach to probation.

"Let's work with these organizations to hopefully create a probation system that helps reduce recidivism which helps reduce people coming back through our system," Zappone added. "It's all about community safety. That's my theme for this election."

"We want our probation department to focus on the people that need their help the most, the folks that are most likely to re-offend," Dooyema said. "Those are generally the people that need the most help and the most resources."

Zappone says allocating resources to these lower level crimes can go a long way to reducing criminal activity.

"Let's intervene early. Let's get treatment," she said. "Let's get that constant supervision so that this doesn't escalate and create more victims in our community."

Dooyema says accountability is also important to curb crime.

"That accountability and that relationship that those folks garner with the court and with probation, it really goes a long way," he concluded.

The candidates are running pretty close in this election. Public disclosure records show Zappone's raised $68,440.15. Dooyema's just short of that, raising $66,327.34.

You can learn more by clicking on this story at kxly.com

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