RALEIGH — Some district court incumbents held onto their seats in Wake and Johnston counties while others were unsuccessful.
Incumbents in Orange, Chatham and Durham ran unopposed.
Two judges in Wake County faced challenges and three in Johnston County campaigned for re-election.
Judge Anna Elena Worley, who was elected to the Wake County District Court bench in 2008, beat Charles Phillips Gilliam, an attorney in private practice who stressed his experience as a businessman. In unofficial results with 200 precincts reporting, Worley garnered 55.06 percent of the 343,658 ballots cast to Gilliam’s 44.94 percent.
Judge Erin M. Graber, appointed to the Wake County District Court bench this summer by Gov. Bev Perdue, was unsuccessful in her bid to keep the seat. She lost to Dan Nagle, an assistant district attorney, former Wake County sheriff’s deputy and unsuccessful 2010 judicial candidate.
In unofficial results with 200 precincts reporting, Nagle was the victor with 54.42 percent of the 355,125 ballots cast to Graber’s 45.58 percent.
Graber, who started her professional career as an advocate for domestic-violence victims, finished second in the May primary for the seat vacated this year by former Judge Jane Gray.
Graber was on the short list of lawyers that her peers on the Wake County bar sent to Perdue to consider as possible replacements for Gray.
Though judicial races are non-partisan, both political parties got behind candidates this year. Nagle and Gilliam were on the Wake County Republican Party’s 2012 Voter Guide.
In the judicial district that includes Johnston, Lee and Harnett counties, Judge R. Dale Stubbs, who has six years on the bench, won a narrow victory over LeVonda G. Wood, a private attorney in Benson who stressed her “conservative” philosophy. Judge Charles P. Bullock, elected to the bench in 2008, was unseated byy Mary Howard Wells, a Clayton lawyer who stressed her ties to the Johnston County Republican Women and her education in business administration.
Judge O. Henry Willis, who has served eight years on the Johnston County district court bench, coasted to victory over a challenge by Nicole T. Phair, a private attorney in Sanford who focuses on juvenile and family law.
Blythe: 919-836-4948
