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RALEIGH - Once again, Republican state lawmakers have filed legislation that threatens fellow Republican politicians in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

Further, if these bills become law, it will be much harder for two of Cumberland County's incumbent judges even to get on the ballot to run for re-election. Those two judges don't belong to any political party.

Republican Rep. Justin Burr of Albemarle filed legislation last week to convert all of the state's judicial elections from nonpartisan to partisan elections.

Republican state Sen. Ron Rabin of Harnett County filed a bill on Thursday that would change nearly all of the state's nonpartisan elections - including board of education, city council and town council, as well as for judgeships - into partisan races.

It's true that many voters want to know the candidates' political parties and want this labeled on the ballot. They find it helpful, especially in elections in which they are less familiar with the candidates.

"Common sense says that elections at all levels and all categories should include the candidates' political affiliation because that reflects part of their belief system," Rabin said in a statement.

Rabin has to consider whether to sacrifice Republican Fayetteville Mayor Nat Robertson for that principle. Republican Cumberland County Board of Education Chairman Greg West could be at risk, too, in this county where partisan Democrats hold tremendous sway.

Robertson had an extremely tight race against Val Applewhite in his 2013 election.

If that race had been partisan, would Democrat Applewhite have beaten him?

Meanwhile, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jim Ammons and Superior Court Judge Claire Hill both recently abandoned the Democrats Party. They now are registered unaffiliated.

Fayetteville City Councilman Ted Mohn is also unaffiliated.

The Burr and Rabin bills punish unaffiliated candidates for standing on their principles. State laws written by Democrats and Republicans already punish unaffiliated candidates in the partisan elections for county offices, the legislature and and statewide races.

By law, in partisan races an unaffiliated candidate can't run unless he persuades enough voters to sign a petition to put his name on the ballot. In small places, this can be a few dozen or a few hundred. As the population rises, it runs into the thousands. In Cumberland County, the threshold is 8,541 for a county-wide race.

For statewide office, the minimum is 94,221 signatures.

Nearly 30 percent of North Carolina's voters, more than 2 million people, reject the political parties. If they want to run for office, they have to jump through that signature hoop.

Either that or the candidates can visit the Board of Elections and sign a piece of paper claiming allegiance to a political party that they dislike.

Burr contends that it is easier for unaffiliated candidates to get on a general election ballot than a party member. It's far less work and less expensive to collect signatures for a petition, he said, than it is to raise money, campaign and get out the vote for a primary.

If that's the case, perhaps Burr will quit his party and start collecting signatures to save himself the time, trouble and expense of the next GOP primary for his House seat.

I suggested to Burr it would be most fair to have open primaries in which anyone can file to run without petitions. All candidates of all parties and of no party would face each other from the start.

The ballots would include party labels to help those who want to know the candidates' affiliations.

The top two winners of the primary, regardless of party, would move on to the general election. A Republican could face a Republican, guaranteeing a Republican Party victory.

And there would no longer be three-way races, where the winner has less than half the total vote, such as we saw in recent U.S. Senate races and the governor's race. Former Gov. Pat McCrory, defeated by about 10,000 votes, certainly could have used some of 102,977 votes that went to the Libertarian candidate.

Burr thinks an all-face-all primary has risks for gamesmanship and corruption. For example, people might vote across party lines to try to sabotage the opposition by picking the weaker candidate, he said.

He prefers the two-party system as it is, with each party selecting its candidates for the general election.

So he will push to expand partisan primaries to our Superior Courts and District Courts.

And the state may again expand the ballot-access barrier it already imposes on 2 million potential candidates.

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Capitol Affairs: GOP bills could defeat Fayetteville Republicans and block unaffiliated candidates - Fayetteville Observer