No need for parties

Published April 20, 2015

Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, April 19, 2015.

Republicans who want to stick partisan labels on every election could end up with a surprise. The GOP brand in judicial and school board races might turn out to be less popular than they think.

Two bills have found support among Republicans in the N.C. House. One makes elections for the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals partisan. The full House approved this measure on second reading Thursday by a vote of 64-49, largely along party lines. The other bill does the same for all local school boards. It hasn’t had a floor vote yet. Both are misguided.

The court races were partisan until 2004. Republicans say Democrats made them nonpartisan because Republican candidates were winning too often. That’s probably true. Voters generally thought Republican judicial candidates were tougher on crime.

Yet, times have changed. Republicans now control the executive and legislative branches of state government. The courts provide the only check on their power. Voters may prefer Democratic judges in that role.

Four seats for the Supreme Court were on the ballot last November. The races were nonpartisan, but both parties were active in promoting candidates. Registered Democrats won three of the four races.

Republicans might think that was an accident. Are they willing to double down on that notion by labeling court candidates by party?

The fourth race actually matched two registered Republicans for chief justice. Mark Martin defeated Ola Lewis. Democrats didn’t challenge Martin because he was so highly respected in legal circles. If it had been a partisan race, however, the Democratic Party likely would not have sat it out. And, of course, the voters wouldn’t have had the chance to choose between two Republican candidates in the general election.

No matter the motives, North Carolina made a wise move in 2004. Nonpartisan elections, and officially nonpartisan courts, really do reduce the kind of hyper-partisanship that we have in state and federal legislative bodies. Judges should not line up with their political parties when deciding cases. Voters may perceive partisan differences on the courts, and rulings may break along party lines sometimes. For the most part, however, partisan distinctions aren’t apparent on our state’s highest courts.

Two years ago, the last time an attempt was made to restore partisan elections, 14 of the 15 judges sitting on the Court of Appeals — Republicans and Democrats — signed a letter asking legislative leaders to retain both nonpartisan elections and public financing of their campaigns. The legislature eliminated public financing, opening elections to more private money from political action committees, lawyers and special interests. Now nonpartisan elections are in danger. Our top courts will become more like our legislature; cases may be decided on the basis of campaign contributions or partisan ideology instead of the law.

Then there are school boards. The legislature already has decreed that the Guilford County Board of Education will become a partisan body for the first time. Imposing a similar mandate statewide is another bad move, only more sweeping.

It probably won’t help Republicans, who are often seen as unfriendly to public education. If voters are given a choice between candidates identified as Republicans and candidates identified as Democrats, the Republicans may end up the losers more often. They’ll deserve it if they force partisan school elections on every county in the state.

There’s the added consequence of preventing unaffiliated candidates from having a fair chance to run for these offices. Voters should want to see more candidates who are politically independent running for the courts and school boards. Republicans want to squeeze out independents. They may come to regret it.

http://www.news-record.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/no-need-for-parties/article_745e91ba-e470-11e4-a84f-4b2d807ada62.html

April 20, 2015 at 9:32 am
Richard L Bunce says:

GNR has their blinders on... of course these races are already partisan despite a political party not being listed on the ballot. I suggest GNR review their local race endorsements over the previous years to see just how partisan these races really are in fact. I get fliers in the mail from both major parties with their listed of suggested candidates. I recall several school board elections around the State in recent years being reported in newspapers as a Republican or Democratic party win.