WW’s Fall 2026 Endorsements: Circuit Judges

4th District, Position 2

Laura Maurer Rowan

Democrat

We endorsed Laura Maurer Rowan in the May primary, and we believe she’s still the right choice to fill the seat in the Multnomah County Circuit Court being vacated by longtime Judge Nan Waller. Waller spent 25 years on the bench, the last eight presiding over the Mental Health Court, where she decides whether defendants are mentally competent for trial or should instead get in line for a stay at Oregon State Hospital. You could make a case that this is the most critical job in Oregon, but we think Maurer Rowan has the best chance of succeeding at it—plus, she’s endorsed by Waller, a good sign.

Maurer Rowan is a senior assistant attorney general at the Oregon Department of Justice, where she argues for the state in post-conviction relief proceedings. She previously worked for the Portland City Attorney’s Office, where she offered legal advice to the Portland Police Bureau during the 2020 protests and riots. Given how often the cops themselves appeared out of control, that’s not a sterling line on her résumé. But prior to that, she served as Multnomah County’s first-ever mental health deputy district attorney. The docket for this position is largely criminal cases, both felonies and misdemeanors; Maurer Rowan has seven years litigating criminal cases.

Our chief apprehension about Maurer Rowan is that she’s primarily worked as a prosecutor, including of defendants struggling with mental illness. But she gave us a compelling answer when we asked her about whether she’d be sensitive to the role mental illness plays in many of the cases that would come before her: The victims of crimes she litigated while at the Multnomah County DA’s Office were mostly from marginalized communities, and it was her job to cultivate relationships with them and walk them through a process they were sometimes wary to engage with.

Her challenger is Diane Sykes, a deeply experienced lawyer in her own right. She’s run her own practice for the past 13 years focused primarily on civil rights and employment cases. Prior to that, Sykes worked for Legal Aid Oregon and the Oregon Law Center for a decade, primarily representing farmworkers—many of them immigrants—in employment and fair housing cases. She then joined the Oregon Department of Justice and set up its first-ever civil rights unit. Sykes has, however, had only 18 months total litigating criminal cases—an important consideration in our decision.

Maurer Rowan has decades of experience in litigating criminal cases, and observers we spoke to say she’s an active listener, a critical skill for a judge. Vote for Maurer Rowan.

Maurer Rowan’s silliest childhood fear: She feared the brakes on her bike would fail.

4th District, Position 14

Elizabeth Savage

Democrat

Lucky voters: Two supremely qualified lawyers are vying for this specialized family law judgeship. Position 14 oversees matters such as divorce, child custody disputes, juvenile delinquency cases, and restraining orders. The seat is vacant due to Judge Amy Holmes Hehn’s retirement in June.

The primary election in May drew a field of six candidates. None of them earned more than 50% of the vote, leading to the runoff situation we now face. Joseph Hagedorn, 54, a full-time judge pro tem in Multnomah County Juvenile Court, captured 38% of the vote. Elizabeth Savage, 47, a family law attorney and part-time judge pro tem in Washington County, was runner-up with 25%.

In the primaries, WW endorsed Hagedorn for this race. We are making the somewhat uncommon choice to switch our backing now to Savage.

Hagedorn’s campaign acts like he’s essentially an incumbent because he has served as a full-time judge pro tem for six years, but those aren’t the facts. Neither Hagedorn nor Savage is an elected judge, and we find the fact that Savage still hangs her shingle and practices family law on a day-to-day basis a compelling argument on her behalf. Savage has a diverse résumé—Peace Corps in Cameroon; teaching high school in the Mississippi Delta—that will serve her well on the bench. Plus, she also serves as a part-time judge pro tem. Both candidates have tried on the robe, and sources say both have earned respect in the counties where they adjudicate.

Certainly, Hagedorn’s résumé and experience are also impressive. He worked as an AmeriCorps lawyer in Albany representing survivors of domestic violence, followed by 13 years as a public defender. Endorsements? How about the entire family law bench in Multnomah County. But Savage’s endorsements are nothing to sniff at either: U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), former Govs. Ted Kulongoski and Barbara Roberts, and a bevy of other politicians, lawyers, judges and civic organizations.

We didn’t say this was an easy choice. It’s, honestly, a rare win-win.

But we found Savage to be a clearer communicator with whip-smart, creative and succinct answers to difficult questions—an enviable quality for any profession, but particularly for one that requires distilling legal jargon to families in crisis. After two rounds of interviews, combined with her experience and endorsements, Savage has emerged as the stronger candidate for the job.

Savage’s silliest childhood fear: “I was very afraid of the dark as a young child,” Savage says. “My mind would be racing and inventing monsters.” The monsters have vanished, but her mind still races at night.