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Joe Floyd II told me yesterday he intends to continue his campaign for Superior Court judge, despite his recent arrest.

He predicted he'll be vindicated once all the facts are known.

I think he's making a mistake. Questions about his personal life will dominate his campaign.

Floyd is running against Judge Lindsay Davis. Ordinarily, any challenger in a judicial race would have about a 40 percent chance of upsetting a highly regarded incumbent based on the fact that most voters are ill-informed about the candidates and make more or less random choices. Floyd's unfavorable media attention so far, with more surely to come as long as he remains a candidate, tilts the odds sharply against him.

Having a poor chance to win is no reason not to run. It's good for sitting judges to have an election challenge, which happens too rarely at the trial court level. Davis is the only Guilford County judge who has an election opponent this year.

But Floyd's recent actions, and events that led up to them, raise questions about his judgment. Because he's running to become a judge, that's important. He didn't have a great deal of support among the local legal establishment before, as far as I could discern, and he'll certainly find less now.

I'm sure Floyd is a capable lawyer. He comes from a well-regarded family in High Point. He's a Wake Forest grad. But he clearly has personal problems that make this the worst time to be running for the bench. He should withdraw, and I expect he'll soon come to see the wisdom in doing so