According to this story, Howard Hawk, Presiding Circuit Judge for Marshall County, Alabama, will run for re-election this year as an independent candidate. Alabama elects its state judges in partisan elections. Hawk filed for the Republican primary but the county party rejected him. Alabama law lets political parties block candidates from running in their primaries for any reason. Republican legislative leaders had welcomed Hawk into the Republican Party, but the Marshall County Republican Party distrusts him because he was a Democrat until mid-2011. Alabama does not have registration by party, and has open primaries.