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Forget Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The candidates voters really should see in televised debates are running for judge.

Won't happen. They're the most important-but-ignored candidates on the ballot.

Let me turn some attention to a nonpartisan N.C. Court of Appeals primary matching incumbent Judge James A. Wynn, Employment Security Commission appeals referee Dean R. Poirier and Greensboro attorney Jewel Ann Farlow. The top two on May 6 will meet again in the November general election.

Wynn looks like a sure thing, at least through Round One. A veteran of nearly 18 years on the bench, he served on the state Supreme Court, was nominated by President Clinton for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, commanded the Navy's Reserve Judicial Unit and chairs the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association.

He's supported by the Democratic Party, which should put plenty of wind in his sails considering the anticipated Obama-Clinton turnout May 6.

Wynn has hit some low points along the way. After his appointment to the Supreme Court by Gov. Jim Hunt in 1998, he lost an election bid that November. The next year, Hunt returned him to the Court of Appeals, where he won election to a full term in 2000. In between, then-Sen. Jesse Helms blocked his confirmation to the federal bench, contending there were enough judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals — although the court was under its allotted strength and had no judges from North Carolina. Helms' action was blatantly partisan.

Through the political tides, Wynn has become a strong advocate of nonpartisan judicial elections.

"There's nothing wrong with judges telling people 'I'm a Republican' or 'I'm a Democrat,' " he said, adding that party affiliation shouldn't be carried into the courtroom.

"For the most part our judges can't be identified as Democrats or Republicans by their opinions. I challenge anyone to find it."

Poirier, who lives in Mount Olive, didn't take up that challenge in a phone conversation Monday but called Wynn a judicial activist, which he defined as "someone willing to render decisions not consistent with facts and law."

An example, he said, was the ruling authored by Wynn earlier this year determining that the state lottery is not a tax. The decision rejected arguments that the lottery bill was approved illegally because legislators didn't take time required for revenue measures.

Poirier said Wynn's ruling showed a lack of courage "because it takes courage to tell the legislature, 'Hey, you're wrong.' "

Poirier saved some criticism for Farlow, who received a joint endorsement with him from the state Republican Party. "That was unfair in view of the fact that she hasn't made the commitment that I've made," he said, contending he has raised more money and campaigned more widely through the state.

He also worried that the semi-nod for Farlow from the state GOP and her gender could push her ahead of him in the voting May 6. Voters tend to give women an edge in judicial races.

Farlow has to overcome other disadvantages, however. She filed a paper with the State Board of Elections declaring she doesn't intend to spend more than $3,000 in her campaign, which won't take her very far. She doesn't have a campaign Web site, but an Internet search quickly brings up information she'd probably prefer voters not see. It involves a suit she filed against Wachovia Bank after she was terminated in December 1994. She complained of "a sexually and racially hostile work environment," but the case was dismissed because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee. Bank policies prohibited her from regular employment because she had two misdemeanor larceny convictions, according to court documents.

This is not the usual resume for an aspiring appeals court judge. But, in an interview Tuesday, Farlow said her troubles belong to the distant past, attributing her 1982 convictions to "youthful stupidity. I made a mistake and learned from it." She was 24 and had graduated from Duke University two years earlier.

Farlow said she's changed her life since then, and Gov. Hunt granted a pardon of forgiveness just before leaving office in January 2001.

"I don't think a mistake makes you a failure," she said, adding she went on to law school at Wake Forest University and has been a practicing attorney for 19 years.

She chose to run against Wynn, she said, because she's disagreed with several of his decisions, including the same lottery opinion cited by Poirier. "I don't believe it was an honest reading of the law," she said.

Candidates for high judicial offices warrant more attention and scrutiny than limited newspaper space typically affords. I'll write more about these candidates on my blog, Off The Record.

But it would be helpful if voters could see them in a televised debate.

Contact Doug Clark at dgclark@news-record.com and 373-7039.