Lexington Superior Court Judge Mark E. Klass intends to run for the N.C. Court of Appeals next year.

Klass intends to seek the seat being vacated by Judge Ann Marie Calabria. Wake County District Court Judge Jane Gray has also announced her plans to run for the seat.

Klass has been a judge for 11 years. He was an assistant district attorney from 1984 to 1986 and was in private practice from 1986 to 1998. In a news release, Klass, 52, says he is pleased to be running in a nonpartisan race.

"I have been pleased with the support I have received from both Democrats, Republicans, and non-affiliated voters in the four counties in which I have run twice. I hope this will carry throughout the state in this election," Klass said.

N.C. Appeals Court Judge Ann Marie Calabria says she will not seek re-election, and Wake District Court Judge Jane Gray plans to run for her seat.

Calabria, who has an appeals court judge since 2002, put out a statement on her Web site saying she wants to spend more time with her family and also to seek other professional opportunities, Rob Christensen reports. Before joining the appeals court, she served six years as a Wake District Court Judge.

Gray announced this morning that she plans in 2010 to run for Calabria's seat. She was appointed to the Wake District Court bench by Gov. Mike Easley in 2002 and has won election twice. Prior to that she served as legal counsel to House Speaker Jim Black and worked for 19 years in the attorney general office handling civil and criminal appeals.

In 2001, she became the first government attorney to head the Wake County Bar Association.

"This is an enormous responsibility and honor, which requires a certain breadth and depth of experience," Gray said in a statement. "I believe my career has prepared me for a seat on the Court of Appeals."

A majority of state appellate judges are women.

After Cheri Beasley's win in November, eight of the 15 seats on the N.C. Court of Appeals are held by women. The court is the second-highest in the state after the Supreme Court.

Along with Beasley, the female judges are Linda Stephens, Linda McGee, Wanda Bryant, Ann Marie Calabria, Martha Geer, Barbara Jackson and Donna Stroud.

Although the posts are officially nonpartisan, Calabria, Jackson and Stroud are Republicans; the rest of the judges are Democrats. They are elected statewide.

Two other women, Jewel Ann Farlow and Kristin Ruth, lost campaigns in November.

State Supreme Court justices Robin Hudson, Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Sarah Parker previously served as judges on the Court of Appeals.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated Jackson's affiliation.

A group opposed to the lottery laid out its case today at the state Supreme Court.

The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law filed its brief today in its challenge to the lottery. The group says state lawmakers improperly established the lottery, Titan Barksdale reports.

In a split decision in March, the state Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's dismissal of the group's lawsuit that challenged the way North Carolina's lottery was established. The lawsuit, filed in 2005, contended that the lottery is a tax and didn't go through the procedural requirements in the legislature for new taxes.

The institute points to Judge Ann Marie Calabria's dissenting opinion to reinforce its argument. Her dissent gave the group a right to bring the case to the Supreme Court.

More after the jump.

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Lawyer Bob Hunter urged a judge to help clarify a law that he says has allowed outside groups, such as Fairjudges.net, to wrongly influence elections by making excessive campaign contributions.

Using a lawsuit brought by Judge Ann Marie Calabria in 2006, Hunter reopened the issue of whether Fairjudges acted appropriately in their support of a candidate who beat Calabria in the 2006 election, reports Titan Barksdale.

Hunter told Judge James Spencer Jr. Thursday that a court ruling in Calabria's favor can help protect the electoral process in North Carolina.

"You can say the flood gates are wide open or you can say under these circumstances, this was an illegal contribution [by Fairjudges]," said Hunter, who is a candidate for the N.C. Court of Appeals. "We need a judge to tell us what the law is."

In 2006, Calabria wanted the State Board of Elections to investigate whether the state Democratic Party was working with Fairjudges to help her opponent, Associate Justice Robin Hudson. The board recently did not take any action against Fairjudges after a report of the investigation was finished.

The report said that the organizers of Fairjudges had an agenda and likely coordinated with an employee of the state Democratic Party to help push Fairjudges' agenda during the 2006 election. By law, groups such as Fairjudges are prohibited from coordinating with parties, but a state elections board member says the law has some loopholes.

Susan Nichols, special deputy attorney general representing the board, said the lawsuit is moot because Hudson has already been declared the winner of the election. And the State Board of Elections has decided against taking action against Fairjudges.

Spencer will rule on the case at a later date.

The North Carolina lottery is safe for now.

The N.C. Court of Appeals today upheld a lower court's dismissal of a suit that challenged the way North Carolina's lottery was established.

The state disagreed, arguing that it makes a profit on the sale of lottery game tickets.

Plaintiffs included state Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, the N.C. Family Policy Council and the Wake County Taxpayers Association.

In his opinion for the three-judge panel, Judge James Wynn Jr. said the Lottery Act was not a bill “enacted to raise money on the credit of the State." Wynn also wrote that the lottery was not created to to pay any debt.

Judge Ann Marie Calabria disagreed, saying the state is essentially indebted to prize winners.

The opinion defines a revenue bill as any legislation that raises money on the credit of the state and pledges the faith of the state for the payment of a debt.

A number of notables were in the audience at the Wake County Republican Party's annual President's Day Dinner tonight.

U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole; U.S. House candidates B.J. Lawson and Augustus Cho; state Sens. Richard Stevens and Neal Hunt; Reps. Nelson Dollar and Marilyn Avila; and state House candidates Bryan Gossage, Eric Weaver and Paul Terrell.

Also at the dinner: Gubernatorial candidates Fred Smith, Pat McCrory and Bob Orr; lieutenant governor candidates Greg Dority and Bob Pittenger; and attorney general candidate Bob Crumley.

A few judges and judicial candidates were also at the audience: state Supreme Court Justice Bob Edmunds, Appeals Court judges Ann Marie Calabria and Donna Stroud, Appeals Court candidates John Tyson and Bob Hunter, Wake County District Court Judge Jennifer Green.

And a few local officials: Wake County commissioners Kenn Gardner and Joe Bryan and Register of Deeds Laura Riddick. Wake GOP chairman David Robinson came back to the podium later to note that he had left omitted "an individual who is most likely armed" — Wake Sheriff Donnie Harrison.

Another noted guest was in the audience: Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms' wife, Dot.

The loudest applause of the night went to Helms, Harrison and Avila, the former county chairwoman.