Shenanigans ensued right before the filing deadline for the NC Judicial races with one candidate paying for another to run against him for a district court seat.

Meanwhile, a veritable nobody jumped into the Supreme Court race.

The Democrat candidate for District Court 10D seat 2, actually paid $1,1167 in fees for a candidate to file against him. That other candidate is  Evan Schreier.

WRAL pondered this case in their headline whether this was ‘sleazy’ or ‘strategy’.
Well, this isn’t an either/or choice — it’s both.

These are some of my favorite bits from the WRAL piece, with emphasis added:

Schreier and Rand are office neighbors. Rand said he covered Schreier’s $1,167 filing fee right at the filing deadline last week in part due to rumors that Republicans were recruiting candidates to run as Democrats and split the vote on that side of the ballot.

In fact, a mailer went out in recent weeks apparently attempting to do just that at the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals levels. 

[…]

The way Rand describes it, they were evening up the ballot for District Court Judge District 10D Seat 2: It now has two Democrats, Rand and Edwards, two Republicans, Schreier and John Ratledge, and an independent, Nicolette Fulton.

Go read the whole article. The finger pointing is almost comical.

Why would one candidate pay the filing fees for another one?  Likely to make themselves seem more legitimate. It’s probably a safe bet that Evan Schreier has zero intention of winning. He’s there to make it look like a good show.

What went on with Schrier is probably not the case with the Raleigh lawyer no one has heard of jumping into the Supreme Court race at the last minute.

In this situation, it seems a good guess that this guy is in there to split the vote in favor of the radical Moral Monday’s favorite lawyer, Anita Earls.

The newcomer to the NC Supreme race is Chris Anglin and he’s already out there declaring his innocence. Via WSOCTV, emphasis added:

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports Anglin actually was a registered Democrat until he changed his voter affiliation in early June, a couple weeks before the judicial candidate filing period began.

[…]

Anglin said he’s not a Democratic “plant” who is running just to help Earls win. Rather, he said he’s running as a “constitutional Republican” unhappy with “the constant assault on the independent judiciary at the state and federal level.”

Anglin said he filed to “stand up for the independence of the judiciary,” he said. “This is not a trick by the Democrats. … I didn’t think I could sit on the sidelines anymore and not take action.”

But wait, there’s more:

Though he shared a campaign photo of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on his Facebook page in 2015, Anglin said he’s not a Democratic “plant.” He’s also Facebook friends with Democratic Sen. Jay Chaudhuri and Ken Eudy, a Cooper adviser.

[…]