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.

N.C. Court of Appeals candidate Kristin Ruth said today that she has returned roughly $13,000 in public money given to her campaign through a quirk in the state's election laws.

"This was an unintended consequence of North Carolina's excellent system of public financing that led to an unnecessary expenditure of public money," Ruth said in a news release.

Ruth, a Wake County District Court judge, called on her opponent in the election, Sam Ervin IV to also return an equal sum given to him, Dan Kane reports. Ervin, a Morganton lawyer and utilities commissioner, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Both candidates are Democrats vying for one of five contested appeals court seats. The races are supposed to be nonpartisan and nearly all of the candidates have opted for public financing. Judges are supposed to be impartial, so the nonpartisan, publicly funded campaigns are intended to take the focus away from politics and remove the possibility of judges being beholden to campaign donors.

But last week, the N.C. Democratic Party decided to jump into the races by spending roughly $13,000 on the Democratic candidates for the appeals court and the N.C. Supreme Court. The money went towards a widely distributed mailer and advertising in newspapers that predominately serve African-American readers.

Such outside expenditures trigger what are known as public "rescue" funds to the opponents to prevent an unfair advantage. But since Ruth and Ervin oppose each other, they received the rescue funds, even though equally benefited from the party's spending.

That means the public would have been spending $26,000 unnecessarily. Ruth's decision cuts that amount by half.

"In keeping with my years of working to save money within the court system, I am returning these funds to the taxpayers," she said.

Update: Ervin later today said he too would not accept the rescue funds.

He added that he is also turning down another $3,000 in rescue funds that election officials had told him were on the way.

He was unsure what triggered those funds.

"I received a call from a reporter today saying that my opponent has apparently decided to return the rescue funds that our campaigns received last week," Ervin said. "I intend to do the same. Also, my campaign was notified this afternoon that the state is dispersing another check to my campaign for about $3,000 in additional rescue funds. I have instructed my campaign to return the check as soon as we receive it." 

The recent payment of roughly $13,000 each in public "rescue funds" to six state appellate court judicial candidates exposed a quirk in the public financing laws.

Spending by the N.C. Democratic Party for mailers and newspaper ads triggered the spending. The races are nonpartisan and nearly all the candidates have opted for public financing. That means outside spending triggers the rescue funds to prevent a competitive disadvantage, Dan Kane reports.

The quirk is that two of the judicial candidates who received the rescue funds — Kristin Ruth and Sam Ervin IV — benefited from the Democratic Party's spending. But since they face each other for an N.C. Court of Appeals seat, state law requires they each receive the rescue funds to make up for the party's spending on the opponent.

That means roughly $26,000 in public money is being spent to aid two candidates who had received the same benefit from the Democratic Party.

State election officials said they were only following the law in providing the funds, but they said lawmakers ought to give the provision a second look.

Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat and vice chairwoman of the House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform Committee, agreed.

"I think that the rescue provision was not written with the intent to provide additional money to candidates who are facing each other and who have both benefited by the positive, identical message paid for by the same third party," she said.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina has made its endorsements.

The group's Employees Political Action Committee, also known as EMPAC, made 16 endorsements in statewide races after meeting Saturday.

"We're thrilled to support candidates who support the state's working families and the retirees who dedicated their careers to serving North Carolina's citizens," said SEANC President Linda Rouse Sutton.

Although most are Democrats, there is one Republican: State Auditor Les Merritt.

They also endorsed several other incumbents: Attorney General Roy Cooper, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson and Appeals Court Judges John Arrowood, Doug McCullough, Linda Stephens and Jim Wynn.

The others: Beverly Perdue for governor, Walter Dalton for lieutenant governor, Wayne Goodwin for insurance commissioner, Ronnie Ansley for agriculture commissioner, Mary Fant Donnan for labor commissioner, Suzanne Reynolds for Supreme Court and Kristin Ruth for Appeals Court.

SEANC, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, has 55,000 members.

It was a good night for female candidates.

Aside from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beverly Perdue, the Senate race will be between Kay Hagan and Elizabeth Dole.

Meantime, Janet Cowell is ahead in the state treasurer race, Beth Wood is ahead in the satte auditor's race, June Atkinson beat back a rival in the state superintendent's race, while Kristin Ruth and Jewel Ann Farlow were finalists for the state Court of Appeals.

In addition, Mary Fant Donnan is in the primary runoff for Labor Commissioner on the Democratic side.

Hillary Clinton may not have won the primary, but she likely brought more female voters to the polls. 

Suzanne Reynolds is working the crowd at the Young Democrats convention.

As a candidate for the nonpartisan state Supreme Court, Reynolds said there was nothing wrong with campaigning at a clearly partisan event.

"It's where excited voters are," she said.

Reynolds compared her Democratic voter registration to her specialty of law, saying both are facts about her that curious voters might want to know.

"I think it's relevant that I'm a registered Democrat," she said. "Where candidates cross the line is when they characterize themselves as Democratic or Republican judges."

Reynolds' opponent, Supreme Court Justice Bob Edmunds, has stressed his Republican ties at recent GOP events.

A law professor at Wake Forest University, Reynolds has been on the short list for judicial appointments before, but she said she never wanted to run until the position was made nonpartisan and the state created public financing for judicial candidates.

"I didn't have the stomach for that," she said.

N.C. Court of Appeals candidates Kristin Ruth and Linda Stephens are also at the event.

Aside from the invited speakers, a few other big-name Democrats will be on hand at today's Young Democrats convention. 

U.S. Senate candidates Kay Hagan and Jim Neal; gubernatorial candidates Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore; lieutenant governor candidates Dan Besse, Pat Smathers, Hampton Dellinger and Walter Dalton; state treasurer candidates Janet Cowell, David Young and Michael Weisel; Court of Appeals candidate Kristin Ruth, and a number of state House and Senate candidates.

Melissa Price, vice president of the Young Democrats, said as many as 500 people may show up. Since it was announced that Chelsea Clinton would be speaking, tickets have been selling more quickly than usual, she said.

"I've been getting phone calls of people wanting tickets for the last few days," she said.

The organization has between 600 and 800 members statewide, ages 18 to 35. 

"We're young professionals," said Price, 25, who works in a Raleigh law firm. "We've got young families. We're new to the workforce. WE are the people fighting in Iraq."

The N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers has announced its support of five judicial candidates and three Council of State candidates.

The Academy endorsed Janet Cowell for state Treasurer and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Insurance Commissioner Jim Long received its endorsement for re-election.

The group also will back Court of Appeals incumbents Chief Judge John Martin, Judge Jim Wynn, and Judge Linda Stephens, as well as Supreme Court challenger Suzanne Reynolds and Court of Appeals challenger Wake County District Court Judge Kristin Ruth.

Previously, the group endorsed Beverly Perdue for governor.

Academy Chief Executive Officer Dick Taylor said the Academy will consider more endorsements as the campaign season continues.

Two Triangle-area District Court judges have announced that they plan to run next year for the N.C. Court of Appeals, Andrea Weigl reports.

Wake District Court Judge Kristin Ruth plans to seek the seat currently held by Court of Appeals Judge John Tyson. District Court Judge Pat DeVine, who holds court in Orange and Chatham counties, plans to run against incumbent Douglas McCullough.

Both women have served on the District Court bench since 1998.