Four circuit court judges and a family court judge have applied for a seat on the state's second highest court.

Although one of the S.C. Court of Appeals candidates is black and another black has been nominated for a second appellate seat, a black lawmaker said Friday he doesn't expect much change in the court's racial makeup.

"They might let one of them in ‘.‘.‘. but we're never going to get a fair representation of black judges, said state Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston. "It's never going to change until we go to a popular vote of judges."

Ford said he doesn't expect the Legislature to correct what black lawmakers contend is an under-representation of blacks on the bench.

Five candidates applied by Friday's deadline for the Court of Appeals seat of Duane Shuler of Kingstree, who is retiring effective April 5.

The candidates are Family Court Judge Mary Buchan of Marion and circuit court judges John Hayes of Rock Hill, John Kittredge of Greenville, Alison Renee Lee of Columbia and Paul Short of Chester.

Lee is the only black candidate.

The state Judicial Merit Selection Commission will nominate no more than three candidates to the General Assembly after having public hearings, scheduled to begin April 22.

Lawmakers also will fill the Court of Appeals seat of Jasper Cureton of Richland County, who is retiring June 30 after about 20 years on the bench. Cureton is the state's highest-ranking black judge.

The Judicial Merit Selection Commission in December nominated Circuit Court Judge Donald Beatty of Spartanburg and Family Court Judge Bruce Williams of Columbia for Cureton's seat. Beatty is black; Williams is white.

Short, the husband of Democratic state Sen. Linda Short, also was nominated but later withdrew to run for Shuler's seat.No election dates have been scheduled for either Cureton's or Shuler's seat. Michael Couick, the commission's chief lawyer, earlier said the election for Cureton's seat was delayed because the House had linked it to the election of state Public Service Commission members.