All three District Court judges seek re-election.

Stewart Stadler, Ted Lympus and Kitty Curtis will seek re-election. Terms are for six years and the race is nonpartisan.

Stadler, 62, of Whitefish, is running for his second term on the court. He also served 15 years as Flathead County justice of the peace.

He said the biggest challenges ahead of the courts are "the increasing case load" and the need to "get things done as quickly as possible."

The addition of a third law clerk will help expedite that, he said.

He has served on the statewide fatality review board that looks at domestic-violence cases.

Methamphetamine use is having a serious effect on the courts, Stadler said. The Flathead is ready for a drug court that could eliminate pretrial detention for some defendants, he said.

Stadler has two grown children.

Lympus, the senior District Court judge of the three, is 63.

He was elected Flathead County Attorney in 1978 and held that position until he became judge in April 1992. He has been re-elected every term since then.

"I enjoy the work," Lympus said.

He agrees with Stadler that the court's biggest concern is the "rapidly increasing case load as it relates to the rapidly increasing population" in the valley.

He has been a member of a number of state committees, including the corrections council. He is president of the Montana Judges Association and serves as chairman of the State Judicial nominating Commission.

He and his wife, Patsy, have two grown children and four grandchildren.

Curtis, 54, is running for her third term.

Efficiently managing the courts' volume of cases "is going to be our biggest challenge," she said.

She has been appointed to the Sentence Review Division of the state and the District Court Council which oversaw state assumption of district courts and is working on the state public-defender system. She also serves on the commission for review of canons of judicial ethics.

Curtis has been honored statewide for her CASA work. She and others established the Court Appointed Special Advocate program for abused and neglected children in the court system.

She has a son who is high-school age.