In what is billed as the most important state judicial election in seven years, at least eight candidates have expressed interest in the seat of retiring S.C. Supreme Court Justice E.C. Burnett.

One reason for the heightened interest: The winner might become the court’s next chief justice.

The deadline for applying for Burnett’s seat is noon today. Jane Shuler, the state Judicial Merit Selection Commission’s chief lawyer, confirmed last week the following candidates had requested applications:

• Court of Appeals Judge Don Beatty of Spartanburg

• Circuit Judge John Few of Greenville

• Circuit Judge Kenneth Goode of Winnsboro

• Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein of Summerville

• Circuit Judge Mark Hayes of Spartanburg

• Court of Appeals Chief Judge Kaye Hearn of Conway

• Family Court Judge Eugene Morehead of Florence

• Court of Appeals Judge Bruce Williams of Columbia

Screening hearings, which are open to the public, are set for April 17. An election in the General Assembly is tentatively scheduled for May 23.

Legal and political observers say Hearn and Beatty are the leading candidates, with Williams and Goodstein considered strong contenders.

Race, gender and political considerations likely will be factors in the election. If Hearn or Goodstein is elected, for example, the five-member court for the first time would have two women. If Beatty is elected, the court would have its first black justice since the 2000 retirement of Ernest Finney, the state’s first black chief justice.

Under state law, the 10-member screening commission, which includes six state lawmakers, can nominate only three candidates for Burnett’s seat. Lawmakers in a joint session of the House and Senate will vote only on the nominees.

THE NEXT CHIEF JUSTICE?

There is even more interest in this race because of speculation that the winner will be in the best position to eventually become chief justice of the five-member court.

That assumes current Chief Justice Jean Toal, 63, serves until her mandatory retirement age of 72.

“I think you have a generational shift on the court every 20 years, and this is one of them,” said Michael Couick, former longtime chief lawyer for the screening commission.

Burnett, 65, of Spartanburg, is retiring Sept. 1. Justices James Moore of Greenwood and John Waller of Marion will face mandatory retirement in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Justice Costa Pleicones, 63, of Columbia, is about six months younger than Toal. If Toal serves until her mandatory retirement age, Pleicones effectively will be out of the running for chief justice.

Traditionally, the most senior justice on the court has been the top contender for chief justice, so the candidate elected in May likely would be the lead candidate after the current justices retire.

Toal — the first woman on the high court and first female chief justice — declined to comment on the upcoming election, saying only, “It’s nice to be looking at it from the sidelines.”

Toal said she has no plans “anytime soon” to retire.

TENSE RACE EXPECTED

If the May election is anything like the last Supreme Court race in 2000, it will be hotly contested.

In that race, Pleicones, a circuit judge, defeated Court of Appeals Judge Jasper Cureton of Columbia and Circuit Judge Gary Clary of Gaffney after four tense rounds of voting by lawmakers.

When Clary, who was in third place, dropped out, his votes shifted to Pleicones.

The election carried racial overtones: Cureton is black, and the other two candidates are white. Race again will be at the forefront in the May election.

“When we talk about diversity, it specifically has to include African-Americans,” said Rep. Leon Howard, D-Richland, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. “Some folks, when they say diversity, mean only white women.”

Longtime Columbia attorney I.S. Leevy Johnson, a former S.C. Bar president and one of the first elected black state lawmakers since Reconstruction, said he thinks Beatty is the front-runner because the retiring Burnett is from the same area. There is an expectation that the Upstate maintain representation on the court. The Black Caucus also probably will support Beatty, he said.

In addition, Beatty likely will have support among Republicans. When Beatty was a Democratic state representative in the early 1990s, he persuaded Black Caucus members to join Republicans in passing a redistricting plan that many believe gave the GOP control of the House, Johnson said.

In 1995, Beatty won Burnett’s circuit court seat after Burnett was elected to the Supreme Court.

Efforts to reach Beatty last week were unsuccessful.

Hearn also has many supporters in the Legislature, said John Crangle, the attorney-director of the state chapter of Common Cause, a government watchdog group.

She declined comment when contacted last week.

Crangle said he believes Hearn is the top contender because she has more experience as a judge than Beatty and is the administrative head of the state’s second-highest court.

The fact that she is a woman also is an advantage, he said. Women are underrepresented in the state’s courts, he said.

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Columbia attorney Pamela Roberts, a former president of the S.C. Women Lawyers Association and current chairwoman of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, said lawmakers should consider gender and race equally when casting their votes.

“Does one form of diversity take priority on the bench? Absolutely not,” she said. “I think we have to go forward on both fronts.”

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484.