Challenger beats incumbent. What’s next for Lane County judicial races?

Not everyone was glad to see Katina Saint Marie run for office, the newly elected Lane County Circuit Court judge said.

“I did meet some opposition from within the legal community, people who were not — who thought that I was behaving inappropriately, or was doing something against custom,” Saint Marie said.

Saint Marie, a longtime Eugene attorney, defeated incumbent Amit Kapoor in the nonpartisan May election for Position 6 in Oregon’s 2nd Judicial District.

Mid-term vacancies on the circuit court bench, which can happen because of retirements, are filled through appointments by the state’s governor. Contested races against an incumbent judge have been extremely rare in Lane County for decades.

Until this year, a challenger besting a sitting circuit court judge in Lane County had been a distant memory. 

The last such victory came in 1960, when Edward Leavy ultimately won a three-person race as the incumbent, Frank Reid, had come under court scrutiny himself. (The county’s district attorney alleged an “illegally constituted” jury under Reid’s direction. Though the Oregon Supreme Court declined to order the jury discharged, Reid finished last in a three-person primary.)

In the 2026 race, Saint Marie won 51% of the vote compared to Kapoor’s 48.4%. The percentages do not add up to 100% because of write-in votes.

Kapoor, who did not respond to requests for comment made through a campaign organizer, had been appointed in 2020 by then-Gov. Kate Brown. He ran unopposed and won an election later that year.

Saint Marie, a family law attorney who also served as a pro tem judge, said she doesn’t know if her running against an incumbent will spark others to do the same.

“Sorry, I just can’t give you an opinion about if I think it’s going to happen more often,” Saint Marie said during a phone interview. 

But “if someone feels like there is a reason for running,” Saint Marie acknowledged that her win serves “as an example of, it can be done.”

She added: “We shouldn’t just be stuck in that you-can’t-do-it-because-we-don’t-do-it kind of mentality.”

Picking her opponent

Lane County has 17 circuit court judges. If it weren’t for Kapoor, Saint Marie – who starts her new role in January – likely wouldn’t be among them.

Asked by Lookout if she would have run against someone else, Saint Marie said, “No.” But she has declined to say much more about her election opponent.

While it isn’t clear why she chose to challenge Kapoor, Saint Marie, while portraying herself as a political outsider, surpassed her opponent in terms of fundraising.

State data shows Saint Marie raising a total of $45,688 in contributions and in-kind contributions, with about 6% of that total coming from her own pockets.

Kapoor raised $23,579 in contributions and in-kind contributions.

Saint Marie’s largest cash contributions were from Jonathan Deininger ($9,750) and attorneys Bryan Boender ($8,500) and Amanda Husted ($3,500).

Researching past campaigns in Lane County for circuit court judge, the amounts raised weren’t exorbitant.

News coverage by the Register-Guard of a 2006 Lane County circuit court race noted that two candidates – through a primary and general election, after a runoff – spent more than $242,000.

The cost of campaigning was cited by one attorney in 2006, Jim Chaney, as making future contested judicial races unlikely.

Reasons for running

Kapoor, in interviews and social media posts as part of his campaign, emphasized his experience. He also won endorsements from civic leaders, including Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson, who wrote that Kapoor’s “knowledge, integrity and commitment to justice support our community every day.”

Others listed as endorsing Kapoor included state Sen. James Manning, state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, and Brown, all Democrats. He also had supporters within the legal community, including five attorneys who co-authored a letter praising Kapoor’s “character, temperament, values and legal ability.”

After Saint Marie’s victory, Lookout solicited responses from local attorneys and others about the future of Lane County circuit court elections, offering anonymity to respondents.

“The hardest thing about this election: was it coincidence that the only sitting judge challenged was the only judge of color?” wrote one local attorney. “Particularly when his competence was called into question (which I don’t recall in past contested elections).”

The same attorney expressed concern about incumbent judges being “forced to campaign and fundraise while hearing and presiding over cases full-time,” though they acknowledged that the appointment process, while thorough, “can feel insular.” 

Saint Marie’s victory “may encourage the committee and decision-makers who are part of that process to consider factors beyond the approval of the local bar insiders,” they said. 

While Saint Marie declined to discuss Kapoor, during her campaign and after the election she critiqued the system in which judges typically rise to the position in Oregon.

In an April interview, Saint Marie told Lookout, “I don’t have political connections. I don’t know people in power, and this is a nonpartisan race. When I look at the endorsers [for Kapoor], I wonder about that.”

With the election secured, Saint Marie spoke about what she said she experienced while campaigning.

The endorsements for Kapoor “gave voters the impression that I was not a member of that political party, kind of making it a political thing,” Saint Marie said. 

“Some voters were demanding … that we say what party I belong to I’m registered with, or else I wouldn’t get their vote. I would have to say this is nonpartisan, I’m not going to talk about that,” Saint Marie said.

Saint Marie noted she and Kapoor “didn’t do any public debates or appearances together.”

She said both were invited to speak at the same “small neighborhood meeting,” but Kapoor did not appear.

“Votes should be seeing candidates side-by-side and should hear their answers to questions,” Saint Marie said.

Choices for voters

Prozanski, a state senator and Kapoor endorser, in an email said it was “too early to predict if there will be more judicial races.”

Brook Reinhard, a local attorney and former executive director of Public Defender Services of Lane County, in an email said he found the voter response exciting.

“Judges already serve six-year terms which helps insulate them from day to day pressure, but at the end of the day, judges should be accountable to voters, and contested elections are the best way to ensure that happens,” Reinhard said. “I hope there are more contested races in the future, and I’m looking forward to seeing Katina Saint Marie take the bench in January.”

Reinhard donated $250 to Saint Marie’s campaign.

Raquel Hecht, an immigration attorney in Eugene who donated $1,000 to Kapoor’s campaign, wrote in an email that it “can be difficult for a judge to have to run a contested election due to his responsibilities to the court and the public.”

“I am not sure what the result will mean but it is certainly possible that it will lead to more contested elections,” Hecht said.

The question of politicizing judicial races has been a concern within Oregon’s legal community.

In 2002, voters statewide rejected Measure 21, about judicial vacancies and elections. 

The ballot measure would have stripped away from the governor the ability to fill judicial vacancies by appointment and instead required elections to fill the vacancies. 

It also would have mandated a ‘None of the Above’ option, giving voters the power to create a judicial vacancy if votes for ‘None of the Above’ gained a plurality of cast ballots. 

Oregon State Bar delegates in 2002 formally opposed the measure, citing in part how “this measure could render judges vulnerable to attack by special interests for unpopular decisions without explanation of the context of the decision.”

Saint Marie, asked her thoughts should she find herself in a contested race as an incumbent, said: “If someone wants to get that position, it’s not mine or anybody’s by right. The term is up, so someone can challenge, and if someone wants to, and I want to be re-elected, well, then we’ll take it to the voters.”