KEN GRAHAM: FROM THE PUBLISHER

When election filing time rolled around in May, Columbia County Prosecutor Rea Culwell was one of several local county incumbents who received no opposition. But due to a little-known state law, Culwell now has an opponent in the general election.

Randy O. Lewis, who unsuccessfully challenged Culwell when she ran for a second term in 2010, received 18 writein votes in this year's primary. Because he received more than one percent of the total votes cast in the race (Culwell received 901), Lewis' name was automatically added to the general election ballot.

In an interview, Lewis told me that since the primary, he has been urged by a number of people to campaign for the office. Signs have gone up and he appeared at the local candidates' forum last week.

It appears that Lewis has practiced very little law in the past four years. He cited three cases he's taken part in since 2010 - one each in Columbia, Walla Walla and Whitman Counties.

Lewis served for about three years as a public defender in Columbia County. That service ended in 2010, however, after Superior Court Judge William Acey told him he overcharged the county for a case.

Lewis has spent most of his law career in his native Louisiana, the only state in the U. S. whose laws are based on French law. (The laws in all other states are based on English common law.)

When he moved to Washington in 2006, Lewis chose a roundabout route to obtain a law license here. He first got a license in North Dakota - the only state with a reciprocity agreement with Louisiana for law licenses - though he never lived or practiced law there. A few months later, he took advantage of Washington's reciprocity agreement with North Dakota to obtain a Washington law license.

Lewis apparently took this approach to avoid taking the Washington State Bar Exam, which he has not taken or passed.

Passing the state bar exam, however, is important for a prosecutor. Each state has its own unique laws and statutes, and the criminal work a prosecutor does is based almost entirely on state law. The prosecutor also serves as the county's legal counsel, advising the county commissioners, the county planner and other county officials on legal matters. Most of that work is under civil law, and again, almost all of it concerns state law.

Studying for, and passing, the state bar exam is how an attorney shows that he or she has a necessary understanding of the state's legal system.

The fact that Lewis got 18 write-in votes against Culwell is unremarkable. If you've been prosecutor for nearly eight years, as Culwell has, and you haven't made at least 18 people mad, you're not doing your job.

Culwell has definitely been doing her job. Though she's still relatively young, she has already prosecuted more than 1,500 cases in her career. Her success rates in adult felony cases, adult felony trials and misdemeanor cases are all above state averages.

Culwell has been active in the community, serving for several years as president of the Coalition for Youth and Families and as a Kiwanis member. She has also represented the county in the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and the Washington Association of County Officials.

Culwell has demonstrated the skills necessary to be an outstanding prosecutor, and she deserves to be reelected.