Judicial candidates discuss election in forum

The candidates for North Carolina's Supreme Court and Court of Appeals gathered to meet the public at the Orange County Courthouse on Thursday. 

The first to speak were N.C. Supreme Court candidates Robert Edmunds Jr. and Michael Morgan, in preparation for the election in November. 

"It's been an up-and-down election," Edmunds said when asked how he felt about this year's election. 

Edmunds has had to deal with the change to a retention election and did not seem pleased by the North Carolina Bar Association's decision. 

Morgan made it a point to show that he was not intimidated by Edmunds' incumbent status.

"When you match up our credentials, mine exceed his," Morgan said. 

Morgan went on to list his credentials and compared them to Edmunds' to supplement his argument.

After an intense round of closing statements from Edmunds and Morgan, the Court of Appeals candidates took the stage.

Candidates included Richard Dietz, Vince Rozier Jr., Robert N. Hunter, Abe Jones, Linda Stephens, Phil Berger Jr., Valerie J. Zachary, Rickye McKoy-Mitchell and Hunter Murphy.

Donald R. Buie suspended his campaign and Margaret Eagles was not at the event. 

The nine Court of Appeals candidates were each given two minutes to introduce themselves and were then asked one question each. 

Partisanship in the judicial system became a hot topic throughout the night as different candidates shared their feelings about it.

"I firmly believe that the selection of judges should be non-partisan," Stephens said.

Stephens also discussed the issue in relation to the selection of judges and said a judge's political party should have nothing to do with their selection to court.

"I feel like we're being pushed," Dietz said. "I want the public to look at the court and say 'politics, get out of here.'" 

Dietz then started to discuss pressure of partisanship when campaigning for a judicial office and said he feels like the candidates were made to act like politicians. 

"I don't want to see the Court of Appeals dragged down into the muck of politics," he said.

city@dailytarheel.com