Campaign Dairy Chapter One. “Learning from mistakes”

I thought today was going to be significant because of what I was doing: filing the papers to run for the N.C. Court of Appeals (more about that later). But as is so often true in life, today was significant for something else: what I learned (or maybe what I relearned).

And to get there, I have to take you through two threads, one about a meeting on quality of life and lawyers and law (yes, we do fret about those things too); and second a thread about fund raisers and politics and the past.

The first thread: I went to Pinehurst to attend the annual CLE put on by Bar Cares, Inc., the Lawyers Assistance Program and the Bar Association’s Committee on the Quality of Life and Effectiveness of Lawyers. The Quality of Life meeting included an excellent talk on the Biology of Addiction by R. DeWayne Book, current Medical Director of Fellowship Hall in Greensboro. Fellowship Hall for those of you who are not familiar with it is an Addiction Treatment Center which is nationally ranked with Hazelton and Betty Ford. Fellowship Hall; it is located in Greensboro and it is about 1/3rd the costs of these other programs. The program also included an excellent speech by John Surratt, a colleague from school days who announced that after years with large firms he is going to open a sole practice office in Raleigh.

I stayed over on Saturday to go to the Friends program. Rev. Tim Patterson and Ruth Anderson gave a lengthy presentation on HeartMath® for lawyers and on practices which can reduce stress. The emphasis on spirituality continued on Saturday with an excellent presentation on the practical benefits of forgiveness by a Amy Sander Montanez a therapist from Columbia South Carolina. Some gems from her talk included the following:

Unforgiveness is like taking rat poison and expecting the other person to die.

There is no such thing as trust, there is only willingness to risk being hurt again.

Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve


The second thread: about the campaign, fundraising and the past. After about 35 years of practicing law, I decided to try and do my part to improve the law. I filed the papers to run for the N. C. N.C. Court of Appeals. One seat this year is open, that is not filled by an elected incumbent. The race is non-partisan and if one is able to raise at least $38,400 in small donations, one qualifies for a state fund of $160,000. It seemed a reasonable risk and a pretty good opportunity. I don’t think that people who run for office, meet new people and listen and learn, ever lose.

After starting a campaign committee, I emailed my out of state friends to raise some initial capital seed money and then contributed to my own campaign to put together enough money to start raising the $38,400. After two weeks I reached this first fundraising goal. But if you would like to help me financially, offer encouragement, thoughts, or volunteer for the campaign, you can sign up at my web site (www.hunterforjudge.com)

On Thursday night, Susan and I went to a fund raiser in Hillsborough, and then on Friday I filed my papers.


And Friday night, we went to another fund raiser. This time, The dinner was held at the Barn in Hillsboro and was attended by about 100 guests from the Chapel Hill area. All the veterans were asked to stand, about 15 in all two of whom were from WWII, one from Korea, a handful from Vietnam, and the Gulf War. No current servicemen or women were present. The main speaker is a candidate for Congress running in the May 6th primary. He spoke about his record as a Korean immigrant and Presbyterian minister coming to this country and thriving under the free market system. He also spoke at length about the profound differences between North and South Korea and the opportunities which America offers its immigrants. He was very supportive of legal immigration and its benefits to the country and the economy at large. His opponent also spoke. He is a software entrepreneur from Chapel Hill and runs a company of about 70 people. Both were very impressive and will make good candidates.

Bob Edmunds, a Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court who stressed the importance of voting the entire ballot. There are a large number of statewide contests this year. The ballot will be crowded with partisan contests printed on ballots before the non-partisan judges. About 1/3rd of the voters who vote for President fail to vote in the judicial contests. Educating people about this “drop-off” will be key to election success in the fall.

After Bob spoke, the other candidates got about 3 minutes to summarize their message. Most other candidates were not present and had representatives from their campaigns to speak for them. Most of the representatives were young twenty year olds working for their candidates. The range of young energy of these people was impressive and their speeches were well received. My old friend from the Holshouser administration Laney Funderburke was present and told me he was glad to see that I was running and would send me a contribution. He had recently lost an election for City Council in Durham and (but for the results) greatly enjoyed the experience. It was good to see someone from the time when he and I were in our 20s and starting in politics.

Now to bring the threads together. I got in my car and drove home. On the way back home, I reflected on the synchronicity of the messages of forgiveness and young people in politics. I trust that the young people of this generation who are entering into public debate will forgive the mistakes of prior generations and learn from them. I feel without such forgiveness they will be condemned to relive those mistakes, much as my generation has had to relive the mistakes made by politicians when we were young.

Or as the famous quote from George Santayana (not related to the guitarist of our generation) put it: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."