The N&O editorializes for nonpartisan election of prosecutors as a way to ensure they play down the middle with no bias for the home team [mixed metaphors in the original]. The writer concludes, “this loss of party labels would be no loss for North Carolina.”
This bill is about appearances and try to escape the tarnished reputation of Democratic prosecutors that may result from Durham DA Mike Nifong. The editorialist recognizes, “candidates generally do identify with one party or another, and, as nonpartisan judicial races show, they do have ways of making that known.”
Public financing and nonpartisan elections have sullied judicial elections by encouraging the men and women who would judge us to bend the rules in an attempt to get their message out. Nonpartisan elections for prosecutors would make these offices less trustworthy, not more.
