Past donations are fair game, but don’t always mean much

Judge Michael Byrne's donations to Democrats make sense in context, so I don't think voters will care very much

Primary election season is heating up, and that’s when the knives always come out.

For a lot of Republicans in North Carolina, the March primary ballot is pretty short. Depending on where you live in North Carolina, you might only have two contests on your ballot. The first is the U.S. Senate primary, which you certainly already know about.

The other is for Court of Appeals judge, which is significantly lower-profile.

Right now, there’s a mini dust-up in the latter race. According to The Assembly, Republican Court of Appeals candidate Michael Byrne made political donations years ago to several Democrats, including $500 to Democratic Judge John Arrowood in 2018 — the very incumbent Byrne is ultimately running against.

Of course, Byrne also gave to a lot of Republicans during this time period, as well — including Justices Phil Berger Jr. and Richard Dietz.

At the time, Byrne was a private attorney doing litigation work in front of all these judges. He described the donations as the “cost …