Welcome back to the Carolina Cabinet, Cumberland County's smartest hour of talk radio. Host Peter Pappas sits down with Judge Craig Collins, a sitting Superior Court judge and the Republican candidate for the North Carolina Court of Appeals, Seat 3. Collins has worked as a prosecutor, in private practice and as a District Court judge before taking the Superior Court bench. He says he's put about 100,000 miles on the car this campaign, and he admits he plans his routes around the best milkshakes and barbecue in all 100 counties.
Peter makes it clear up front that this isn't a confirmation hearing, so there are no questions about how Collins would rule. They talk instead about how the job works. Collins says a judge's only question about a law is whether it's constitutional, and that the oath covers all of the Constitution, "not just the parts you like." He walks through North Carolina's 1971 Constitution and how voters amend it, and explains why trial judges weigh the facts while appellate judges work only from the record.
Then it turns local. Collins explains how Court of Appeals decisions shape what happens in Cumberland County courtrooms, from how evidence is handled to custody cases. He talks about what a Superior Court docket really looks like, the cost of adding judges, and the hardest cases he has heard, including a Halloween-night visit to a youth detention center that still stays with him.
Early voting begins Thursday, October 15. Learn more about his campaign at votecraigcollins.com, and find all of our candidate conversations at thecarolinacabinet.com.
00:00 Intro
00:22 Welcome, Judge Craig Collins
01:23 Gaston County to Fayetteville
01:54 Touring the state by restaurant
03:34 From prosecutor to Superior Court
06:46 Why the Court of Appeals
07:43 No confirmation-hearing questions
12:28 "Is it constitutional?"
14:33 The trial judge's lane
17:04 What the Court of Appeals means for Cumberland County
19:26 "Going home to grade your papers"
22:23 Are NC courts short-handed?
25:03 When the law forces a hard result
27:45 Halloween night in youth detention
29:12 What voters should know
30:00 Where to find Judge Collins
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