NCBA, UNC-TV Present Forums

UNC-TV, in partnership with the North Carolina Bar Association, will provide appellate judicial candidate forums in advance of the Nov. 4 general election. Candidates in contested elections who filed in February will participate in the forums.

The forums were taped on Aug. 27-28 and will air on Sunday, Oct. 26. The Court of Appeals program begins at 12:30 p.m. and last one-half hour. The Supreme Court program begins at 1 p.m. and lasts one hour.

The N.C. Supreme Court Candidates Forum and the N.C. Court of Appeals Candidates Forum are provided for educational purposes as a public service of the NCBA through funding provided by the NCBA Foundation Endowment.

Candidates appearing in the Supreme Court forums are Justice Mark Martin and Judge Ola M. Lewis who are competing for the Parker seat (chief justice); Justice Robin Hudson and Judge Eric Levinson who are competing for the Hudson seat; Justice Cheri Beasley and Mike Robinson who are competing for the Beasley seat; and Justice Robert N. Hunter Jr. and Judge Sam J. Ervin IV who are competing for the Martin seat.

Candidates appearing in the Court of Appeals forums are Judge Mark Davis and Judge Paul Holcombe who are competing for the Davis seat; and Judge Bill Southern and Judge Lucy Inman who are competing for the Robert C. Hunter seat.

Access to both programs will be available through the UNC-TV website (www.unctv.org)

following the original airing date. In addition, links to individual videos for each race featured in the forum are already available. Click on the contest below to access:

Justice Mark Martin and Judge Ola M. Lewis (Parker seat)

Justice Robin Hudson and Judge Eric Levinson (Hudson seat)

Justice Cheri Beasley and Mike Robinson (Beasley seat)

Justice Robert N. Hunter Jr. and Judge Sam J. Ervin IV (Martin seat)

Judge Mark Davis and Judge Paul Holcombe (Davis seat)

Judge Bill Southern and Judge Lucy Inman (Robert C. Hunter seat)

Shannon Vickery, director of production for the UNC Center for Public Television, has been the primary contact for development of the televised forums. UNC-TV news anchor Kelly McCullen moderated both programs.

Two seats for the Court of Appeals that will not be included in the program are the Donna Stroud seat, for which the incumbent is unopposed, and the John C. Martin seat, which became open at the end of August.

Nineteen candidates filed for the Martin seat: Marion Warren, Chuck Winfree, John M. Tyson, Elizabeth Davenport Scott, Tricia Shields, Jody Newsome, Marty Martin, Hunter Murphy, Keischa Lovelace, Ann Kirby, Abe Jones, Sabra Jean Faires, Daniel Patrick Donahue, J. Brad Donovan, Lori G. Christian, Jeffrey M. Cook, Betsy Bunting, John S. Arrowood and Valerie Johnson Zachary.

The Court of Appeals forum will make mention of those candidates not appearing on the program. Closing comments will also make reference to ElectNCJudges.org, the special NCBA website containing evaluations of candidates seeking election to the District Court and Superior Court. ElectNCJudges.org was developed by the Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee.