Southern Highland Reader

RALEIGH/STATEWIDE–As the Raleigh News and Observer point out here, the argument about whether judges should be appointed or elected isn’t new.

Judge’s races are non-partisan, but can be heavily funded by law firms whose attorneys do their work before the judges that are running for election.

The issue came up in our neck of the woods most recently when Sybil Mann ran against Monica Leslie for District Court Judge in 2004. Mann ran a campaign that was openly critical of the system (and lost by about eight percentage points, as I recall).

The News and Observer points out that the state has responded to the contradiction in some positive ways.