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Long-time Greensboro lawyer Bob Hunter was elected to the N.C. Court of Appeals Nov. 4, just two years after Bob Hunter was elected to the N.C. Court of Appeals.

They're not the same.

One is Robert C. Hunter, from Marion, who was first elected to the court in 1998 and re-elected in 2006.

The other is Robert N. Hunter, managing partner of Hunter, Higgins, Miles, Elam & Benjamin in Greensboro.

This Bob Hunter defeated Judge John Arrowood for his seat on the Court of Appeals two weeks ago.

There's going to be confusion. In fact, when I called Judge Bob Hunter at the Court of Appeals Monday, his secretary double-checked to make sure I wasn't trying to reach the other Bob Hunter. I assured her I was aware the newly elected Bob Hunter had not yet taken his seat on the court.

Actually, there was confusion: "A lot of people at home and around the state, lawyers, a judge, in Rotary Club with me, people in my church, thought it was me running," the Bob Hunter who wasn't running told me.

Did many voters vote for Bob Hunter thinking he was Bob Hunter?

It's possible, because Bob Hunter's election (the recent one) surprised some court watchers. It pushed against a tide. Although judicial races are nonpartisan, Greensboro's Bob Hunter is a Republican. Arrowood is a Democrat. Other Republicans running for the Court of Appeals got swamped, including incumbent Doug McCullough. Yet Hunter won big.

When I spoke with Arrowood last week, he was at a loss to explain. He thought he ran as good a campaign as it's possible to run with the limited resources and attention judicial candidates get. He had plenty of endorsements and hadn't written any unpopular opinions that came back to bite him. He thought Hunter might have been the beneficiary of some other-Bob Hunter voting.

That other Bob Hunter, a Democrat, was very successful in his election just two years ago, winning 99 counties. Some voters might have recognized his name and marked it again, not realizing the first guy won an eight-year term and won't be up for election again until 2014.

Greensboro's Bob Hunter acknowledges that theory, although he said he'd rather believe voters examined his 35 years of legal experience "and made an intelligent choice."

He also cited the Balls Creek Fish Fry theory, referring to a Republican event in Catawba County. It has a tradition going back to Jim Holshouser in 1972 that Republican candidates who show up win, those who don't lose. Hunter was there, along with Bob Edmunds (Supreme Court), Steve Troxler (agriculture commissioner) and Cherie Berry (labor commissioner) -- all winners. Not there: McCullough, Pat McCrory, Elizabeth Dole (naturally) and all the other Republicans who lost.

More seriously, Hunter said he used his publicly financed campaign dollars to run targeted TV ads heavily in the Triad and Charlotte, with a smattering in Asheville and Morehead City. He thinks that was effective.

Then there was the Simkins PAC endorsement in Greensboro, notable because picking a conservative white Republican doesn't seem to be the norm for the group whose principals include Skip Alston and Earl Jones.

I checked last week with Steve Bowden, the prominent attorney whose name accompanied the Simkins PAC's slate of judicial endorsements. He told me they liked Hunter for his work on political redistricting issues. Hunter has helped Republicans carve districts favorable to their candidates. At the same time, Bowden said, that process has been advantageous to black voters. You can create a safe Republican district by grouping a lot of black Democratic voters into an adjoining district. Hunter mentioned he's got "a record of supporting Voting Rights Act issues."

OK. But I also heard it didn't hurt that Hunter gave Mayor Yvonne Johnson's daughter her first job as a lawyer.

He did hire Lisa Johnson-Tonkins, Hunter told me, adding that she's "a great lawyer." She works for the District Attorney's Office now, but he wishes she were still with his firm.

He also supported Yvonne Johnson in her campaign for mayor last year, Hunter said.

I don't know if those facts explain the PAC's endorsement, but let's just say Arrowood didn't have those kinds of connections.

Hunter won a strong vote in Guilford County.

He will be sworn in as a judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals here in Greensboro on Jan. 6. If you want to keep track, remember, that's Robert N. Hunter.