October 31, 201810/31/2018 From the Left

Partisanship brings controversy to NC judicial elections

Against Gov. Roy Cooper's wishes, partisan Supreme Court elections have been restored in North Carolina, making for an unusual 2018 N.C. Supreme Court election.

Cooper expressed his disapproval saying, "North Carolina wants its judges to be fair and impartial, and partisan politics has no place on the judges’ bench. We need less politics in the courtroom, not more."

Although the role of Supreme Court judge is to be impartial when interpreting the law, candidates will be listed with indication of their political party affiliation on the ballot this November.

Two Republicans, one Democrat, many opinions

The candidates for N.C. Supreme Court Justice include current incumbent, Barbara Jackson (R), Anita Earls (D), and Chris Anglin (R), a third candidate coming in as a newly-registered Republican Party member as of June 2018.

While Anglin could have listed himself as unaffiliated to back his disfavor of partisanship in judicial elections, he chose to register as a Republican instead.

“When I announced, I stated I was running as a Republican to be a voice for the many disaffected, conservative, constitutional Republicans who believe the party has left them, and to make the point that partisan judicial elections are a mistake," said Anglin to the Charlotte Observer.

Candidates who register unaffiliated with a party tend to have a more difficult time getting on the ballot. As for candidates who switch their party affiliation months before an election, candidate Chris Anglin (R) seemed to have no problem obtaining signatures from at least 2 percent of the voters in his election districts to make the ballot, despite switching sides just before joining the race.

Republicans unhappy, but any partisan ballot problems are of their own making

GOP members are wary of Anglin’s party change and suspect intentions of splitting Republican votes, placing Democratic candidate Anita Earl ahead. In attempts to keep Anglin from appearing as a Republican on the ballot, Republican state legislators worked to pass a law stating a candidate cannot appear on the ballot as a member of a specific political party unless they have been a registered member of that party for at least 90 days. To combat Republican efforts to keep him unaffiliated on the ballot, the N.C. Supreme Court candidate filed a lawsuit against Republican legislators that ultimately ruled in his favor.

Despite Anglin’s recent switch to the Republican Party, candidate preference varies among Democratic voters and the fear of splitting the Republican vote may become a reality. N.C House Rep. John Ager (D-Buncombe) says he does not pretend to be able to guess the motives for Anglin’s switch to the Republican Party.

“It is clear that the motives of the Republican leadership in the General Assembly have backfired,” Ager told the Full Bird. “They had hoped to cancel the primary then encourage several Democrats to run. They made the race partisan again then tried to strip away the R next to Mr. Anglin’s name on the ballot.”

Ager says, “Mr. Anglin has spoken eloquently about the need to protect our judiciary from partisan manipulation, and for that I applaud him.”

The recent Spectrum News poll shows Anita Earls ahead of both Republican candidates with Anglin falling in second, ahead of Jackson.

Regardless of Gov. Roy Cooper’s disapproval of partisan judicial elections he’s expressed in the past, Earls being the only Democratic candidate against two Republicans may give Democrats a 5-2 majority on the N.C. Supreme Court. A regretful GOP witnesses the influence partisanship has on an election as the Republican vote is split before them. While splitting the Republican vote may or may not have been Anglin’s intention, he has punished the GOP for requiring candidates to be listed under a political party and has demonstrated that there is no place for partisanship in judicial elections.