(RALEIGH) -- A bill in the state Senate would make North Carolina’s judicial races partisan again. In 2001, state lawmakers changed the election of district court judges to nonpartisan contests. A year later, state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals candidates also lost their party identification on the ballot.

Republican bill sponsor Sen. Jerry Tillman said people want to know who they are voting for.  "I get all kinds of questions.  They call me a week before the election...whose Republican, who are the conservatives, nobody knows," said Tillman.

He added that he does not think any particular party would benefit from a return to partisan races.  "The other side thought that it would impact us when they made it nonpartisan because we were winning then and we're winning now.  We've still got majorities on the courts, so I don't know. I didn't even look at the political ramifications whatsoever.  I just look at what I think people need to know when they go to vote," said Tillman.

GOP lawmakers have made restoring partisan judicial races a top priority for the 2011 legislative session.