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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― In one of Minnesota's two contested Supreme Court races, a longtime trial judge is taking on an incumbent who's facing voters for the first time. In the other, a man who isn't shy about promoting a biblical world view is challenging one of the high court's longest-serving justices.

Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea is running hard to keep the job she was appointed to in 2006. She's facing a low-budget but scrappy challenge by Hennepin County District Judge Deborah Hedlund, who's been on the bench since 1980 and says the Supreme Court doesn't have enough trial judge experience.

Tim Tingelstad -- who says "justice is served when judges fear God and love the people" and that courts have created a "false wall of separation between church and state" -- is making his second run for the high court. Last time he drew 28 percent of the vote in a loss to Justice Alan Page. This time, the family court magistrate from Bemidji is running against Justice Paul Anderson, who's been on the court since 1994.

Both Gildea and Anderson are touting their own experience and the long lists of prominent members of the state's legal establishment who endorse them.

Gildea had served just a few months as a Hennepin County district judge before Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed her to the Supreme Court in 2006. Before that, she'd been an assistant county attorney, an associate general counsel at University of Minnesota. Her husband is Andy Gildea, a top staffer in the Minnesota House Republican Caucus.

She proudly notes that Minnesota's three most recent past chief justices have endorsed her, as have 115 appellate lawyers and eight past presidents of the Minnesota State Bar Association. She was supported by 72 percent of the lawyers who voted in the bar association's straw poll.

"The lawyers know who the good judges and justices are," Gildea said.

Hedlund downplays Gildea's experience and endorsements. She said her decades as a trial judge, including more than 25 first-degree murder trials, would bring needed practical criminal law experience to the Supreme Court. She points out that Gildea is the only one of the seven justices to have served on a trial court at all, and it was only briefly. And she said the six others were also short on criminal law experience before they joined the court.

"There's no criminal experience up there -- nobody that's ever tried a murder one case as a lawyer or a judge," Hedlund said.

Hedlund also said she stays away from politics, doesn't watch TV news, doesn't read the newspaper, and hasn't even formed an opinion on the presidential candidates. "I have been fastidiously impartial and out of that loop, and I'm not about to plunge into that now," she said.

Gildea has reported raising about $36,000 for her campaign so far -- a relatively modest sum for a statewide race -- and loaned it $4,000 of her own money. Anderson has reported raising about $17,000.

The challengers are far behind. Tingelstad has reported raising about $4,800 and loaning $5,000 of his own money. Hedlund took in only $600 by the end of the last reporting period, though she said she's raised more since and has been spending her own money.

Hedlund and Tingelstad both oppose changing the system that allows citizens to challenge sitting judges and run for open seats. Hedlund said she supports the current merit selection process for district judges, but she's critical of how Supreme Court appointees tend to be people close to the governor, and said she rejects the idea that the public can't be trusted to elect judges.

Last year, a commission chaired by former Gov. Al Quie recommended that judges be appointed by the governor from lists of nominees from a merit selection commission, and then periodically face up-or-down votes in retention elections. The idea is to preserve an impartial judiciary and head off big-money judicial campaigns following a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of the state's rules restricting judicial candidates from stating positions on issues and seeking or accepting endorsements.

Gildea, Hedlund and Anderson have all declined to take much advantage of their new freedom.

Tingelstad has gone the farthest. His Web site includes a copy of his answers to a candidate questionnaire from the Minnesota Family Institute. He told the group he opposes a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision -- which Anderson voted for -- that requires public health programs for the poor to cover abortions and recognizes that women have the right to get abortions.

He also gives opinions on several other significant cases. And his Web site has a link to Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, an anti-abortion group that has endorsed both him and Gildea.

"I am very much opposed to abortion and believe there is nothing in the Constitution that would mandate publicly funded abortions. ... There's nothing wrong with judges telling people what they believe the law says and what the Constitution says," Tingelstad said.

Tingelstad and Anderson have refrained from criticizing each other, though Anderson said he'll continue to refuse to comment on issues that might come before the court.

"This is America," Anderson said. "He has the right to represent himself however he wishes. I don't share the same world view, but he is absolutely entitled to it."

Anderson is known as an ambassador for the courts. He frequently speaks to school classes and civic groups about how the legal system works. Last week he hosted a delegation of jurists from Kyrgyzstan who came for an in-depth look at the rule of law and the administration of justice in Minnesota.

But working with young people is his passion. He said it's because of adults who took time to mentor him when he was young.

"I actually made a promise to myself way back then -- that I was going to be like those who took the time," Anderson said. "This is a legacy thing. I'm repaying some people that took the time to mentor him when he was young.

"I actually made a promise to myself way back then -- that I was going to be like those who took the time," Anderson said. "This is a legacy thing. I'm repaying some people that took the time and invested in me when I was younger."

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