Judges embark on NC election tour

Four candidates in the upcoming North Carolina judicial elections started a statewide tour in Wilmington on Monday in an attempt to raise awareness about the upcoming election.

There will be four N.C. Court of Appeals races and four N.C. Supreme Court races on the midterm election ballot.

Bob Hunter, N.C. Supreme Court associate justice running for re-election, said the tour is a chance for the candidates to meet with sheriffs, lawyers and residents statewide.

“It’s kind of a judicial road trip,” he said. “We’re having a lot of fun going out meeting people because a lot is happening in North Carolina that’s kind of under the radar.”

Eric Levinson, N.C. Superior Court judge also running for the state Supreme Court and the main organizer of the trip, said the tour will stop in 19 North Carolina cities and towns and will run through Friday.

He said it is important for state residents to be involved in this year’s elections because of the large number of seats open.

Fellow tour member John Tyson, a recall judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals and an emergency Superior Court judge, is one of 19 candidates running for one seat on the Court of Appeals.

“The idea behind the tour is to meet voters and encourage people to take an interest in our judiciary,” Levinson said.

Ferrel Guillory, a UNC journalism professor and director of the Program on Public Life, said judicial campaigning is more difficult than other political offices.

He said because judges are bound by their code of ethics to avoid discussing cases that may appear before the court, there is much less opportunity for candidates to differentiate themselves in judicial races.

“Judges have power,” he said. “But because of the nature of the office, they get much less attention during campaign time.”

Mike Robinson, a Winston-Salem lawyer running for Supreme Court, said polling has found that many citizens know little about judicial candidates or elections.

“The judiciary is a coequal branch of government, but the judiciary is probably the least understood branch of government,” he said. “It does important work that affects all of the citizens of North Carolina.”

The N.C. Association of Educators has also been involved in the elections because of the large impact the judiciary has on education policy, said Mark Jewell, vice president of the NCAE. But they have not endorsed any of the four Republican judiciary candidates on the tour.

Jewell said the group is endorsing a total of eight candidates from both parties in the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals races.

“We feel that the judicial races are clearly critical to the decisions that are made in effecting the public and students of North Carolina,” Jewell said.

The NCAE has filed suits challenging two recent pieces of legislation — a bill to end teacher tenure and a private school voucher program. Jewell said both cases demonstrate how important the judiciary elections are for education.

“We must get involved and we must educate our community about those (judges) that will be fair and nonpartisan,” he said.

Levinson said the tour aims to encourage voters to elect judges who are fair and impartial, but Hunter said the tour has also been a fun way to explore North Carolina.

“It’s as well organized as a college road trip is,” Hunter said. “We’re all just kind of off to see the wizard.”

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