Page 8 • Thursday, October 3, 2002
NEWS
The Pendulum
Associate justice speaks
The legislature is so bitterly divided on party lines,
on ideological lines, that people are going to get caught
in the meat grinder.
—Bob Orr, N.C. Supreme Court Justice ^ ^
Jennifer Guarino
Editor in Chief
Bob Orr, a North Carolina
Supreme Court justice, spoke to
political science students Monday
about the dillicuities of running for
re-election and the role of the state
Supreme Court.
“The first rule of politics is you
never mention your opponent’s
name,” Orr said when asked who he
was running against. Orr is seeking
re-election after completing his first
eight-year term on the court.
Democrat Bob Hunter is challenging
him. Previously, he served as a judge
for the North Carolina Court of
Appeals.
Orr says elections for judicial
candidates will be nonparti.san in
2004 based on the Judicial Reform
Act. Some of the tools available to
candidates next year will be voter
guides, which provide background
on all candidates to inform voters.
Orr says he feels the guides will not
be effective. “Voter guides are puff
pieces... it doesn’t tell you much,”
Orr said. “We live in an informaiion-
overload society. Who is going to
read a voter guide for a judge?”
While judicial candidates are
supposed to be politically neutral,
professor Betty Moi^an says they
associate with parties “because it is
so difficult to give voters who are
under-informed any other kind of
information tliat makes any sense.
Convention wisdom is that if we
have party labels, it tells voters core
values and help them decide
between candidates.”
A Student asked how the state
could avoid the effect of partisan
politics in the judicial branch by life
time appointments for judges. Orr
says issues of accountability and
independence come into confiict and
he would rather judges be account
able to the people. ‘The legislature is
so bitterly divided on party lines, on
ideological lines, that people are
going to get caught in the meat
grinder,” Orr said.
Orr discussed the struggles
judges encounter in elections. The
average judgeship race will raise
$100,000, while major Senate races
may raise $10 million, he said.
With the responsibility to be fair,
Orr says state Supreme Court mem
bers must find a balance between
money and endorsements and their
role as upholders of the state consti
tution.
“Tlie money isn’t driving deci
sions, at least in court races,” On-
said. Former Chief Justice Burley B.
Mitchell Jr. and the N.C.
Association of Educators have
endorsed his candidacy. “Those
endorsements move voters.”
Orr has been in the news recently
as the Democratic Party called for
the investigation of Orr’s involve
ment in a political rally for Elizabeth
Dole in June. The party asserted that
Orr violated the Code of Judicial
Conduct by endorsing an candidate.
The panel investigating the matter
has closed the case without action.
Contact Jennifer Guarino at pen-
duliim@elon.edu or 278-7247.
Students donate blood
Tim Rosner/Photography Editor
Student, Jenny Brown, gives blood Wednesday morn
ing in Moseley Center. Volunteers signed up to donate
blood all week for the EVI sponsored blood drive.
Are you swamped with mid-term papers?
o CO
POOo
00 .
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Winter Term Internships
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