News-Record.com

I hope the lack of comments to this op-ed is not indicative of public interest in our judicial races! Yikes.

I wanted to get some facts and figures together before I responded, so I did some research on the State Board of Elections website. For some reason, it doesn't have my 1996 election reports, and without traipsing up into the attic and rooting around for it, I can't comment specifically on that year, but in the other years I have run for district court judge, I spent less than $10,000 and not a dime came from attorneys. (I know I spent less than $10,000 in 1996, but I just don't have those exact figures.)

For me, it was $9759 in 1994, $7907 in 2000 and $8659 in 2004. Most of those monies were my own. I either dipped into savings or an investment/supplemental retirement account to finance my campaigns.

I had always chosen not to accept contributions from attorneys because I just didn't like the appearance of it. I can also tell you that when I was an assistant district attorney, running against a sitting judge, I don't believe very many attorneys would have contributed to my effort anyway.

In looking at some of my colleagues' reports, I can tell you I spent far less than most judges and judicial candidates for district court. Judge Teresa Vincent spent $20,000 in 2000, Judge Robinson Hassell spent over $20,000 in 2004, Judge Patrice Hinnant spent $18,000 in 2004, Judge Lawrence McSwain spent $28,000 in 2000, Judge William Daisy spent $39,000 in 2000, Judge Sherry Alloway spent $68,000 in 2004 (her race included a primary). Judge Susan Burch spent $11,000 in 2004.

When I decided to run for superior court, I knew I would be facing an opponent with a lot of financial resources. I could tell that by his previous campaign for district attorney. Stuart Albright spent over $70,000 in 2002's district attorney race. It appears from the Board of Elections website, that he didn't spend a dime of his own money. He had a lot of donors and a lot of high level donors.

And because he was appointed to fill his father's judicial seat until the election, I knew he would have an "incumbent's" advantage when it came to support. Many attorneys follow the tradition of contributing to sitting judges. There is some perceived pressure to do this, in my opinion. In fact, he has raised over $40,000 through the last reporting period (June 30). I do not plan to spend anywhere close to that.

Anyway, with this in mind, I decided to end my moratorium on attorney contributions for this superior court race. Sure, I felt like I sold out to a degree...I still don't like the appearance. But I had a number of attorneys tell me they wanted to help me, and I am very appreciative. I have tried to be low-key about my whole financing approach. I sent out a general letter to attorneys in Guilford County to let them know who I was and what I was about. We have over a thousand lawyers in our county, and the bulk of them do not practice in state district court, so I wanted to introduce myself to all of them. In my letter, I indicated I would be grateful for any support or contribution but that they could rest assured that a donation or lack of donation would never make a difference in how they or their clients were treated in my court. That is not what I am about.

Other than that general letter, I have not asked anyone for a contribution or had anyone ask for me. I just don't feel right about putting the squeeze on people like that. Attorneys, law enforcement officers, court officials have to work with whoever the judge is, and I believe it is just wrong to put pressure on them about who they support. By the same token, I have never asked anyone in our courthouse community to put a sign in their yard, a sticker on their car, etc. If they ask me about it, then, of course I take them up on their offer! But again, these folks have to work with whoever is the judge, and it's just not right to put them on the spot.

For what it's worth, I can tell you that attorney contributions represent 24 percent of what I anticipate spending this year. I have put over $20,000 of my own money into this race. Again, I dipped into an investment/retirement account. It's not a loan. I am pretty tight with how I spend this money. You won't see expenditures on any of my past of current reports for things like receptions, gifts, computers, gift certificates, bands, parties, robes, meals. I was a bit surprised to see those disbursements on other reports. I guess it's easy to spend someone else's money, but I would never consider spending campaign contributions to buy gifts or pay for a band. My money goes for basics like yard signs, advertising, postage and handout cards.

One final note. In your article, you mentioned that Guilford County Public Defender Wally Harrelson is financially supporting Stuart Albright for judge. By statute(NCGS 7A-466), the public defender is appointed by the senior resident superior court judge. In other words, Stuart Albright's father (Judge W. Douglas Albright) has kept Wally Harrelson appointed as public defender all these years. And, as Mr. Harrelson mentioned to you, most members of his staff are supporting me. I take great heart in that because those assistant public defenders are in court every day, representing thousands of defendants each year. Those assistants have a knowledgeable perspective on how I and other judges do our jobs.

Judge Bray,

Thanks for your comments and the inside look at a judicial campaign.

Responses here may be indicative of the public's interest. I've only received communications from judges and lawyers about the column. Of course the public should be very concerned about judicial races. Among many other reasons, tax dollars are paying for most of the statewide judicial races. (There's no public funding for superior and district court campaigns.)

The June 30 reports show Stuart Albright had raised $44,393, while you had received only $3,124. How will that disparity affect the outcome in November?

If you want to see a judge squirm, ask if he or she is taking donations from lawyers. ...* Doug

Or better yet! Is he or she taking money from political parties in a non-partis judical race. Wait a minute you already cover that. Excellent story Doug and don't worry about the interest in judical races. I have more faith in the voter checking things out with the age of the internet as the weapon of information on judical races in the future. It's here and some so-called political expert folks just haven't fiqure that out yet.

You're right. There was a huge disparity in money as of June 30. I don't know what the disparity is now. The next reports aren't filed until sometime in October.

As I said in my earlier posting, I have added $20,000 of my own money and have accepted some other contributions. I am still not near the $44,000 my opponent had in the bank as of June 30.

Who knows how the financial disparity will play out? My previous campaigns have never been about money. As I stated earlier, I'm pretty thrifty with campaign dollars and never spend what I don't think I need to. And, quite frankly, even if I had a ton of money, I probably would not spend $40-50,000 plus for a local judicial race. I think that's ridiculous.

So, you won't see television ads for me. I'll be a no frills, basic type--print ads in various publications, a couple of billboards, ads in community/school programs, website and a couple of web ads. I've always relied on word of mouth and what I hope is a good reputation for doing a good job and of course, I'll hope for informed voters! That's key.