Back in December, Democratic North Carolina governor Bev Perdue bypassed her own judicial-nomination commission to push through an appointment of appellate judge Cheri Beasley to North Carolina’s Supreme Court. To his credit, North Carolina’s new Republican governor, Pat McCrory, used his first press conference to announce that he had abolished the commission altogether:
Gov. Pat McCrory issued his first executive order Monday to repeal a nonpartisan judicial nominating commission put in place by his predecessor.
The Republican said the commission didn’t work, noting that even former Gov. Bev Perdue rescinded the order in the final weeks of her term to fill a vacancy on the N.C. Supreme Court.
Perdue created the commission in 2011 to take the politics out of the process of picking judges. But the Democrat appointed some of her closest aides and prominent Democrats to the 18-member panel.
McCrory said politics is still a concern but he will appoint judges with the “highest integrity.”