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One day you're running for the state Supreme Court. The next day you're running for the Court of Appeals. Can you shift hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for the first race into the war chest of the second?

That is a question facing Presiding Judge Sara Doyle of the appeals court, who has spent much of the year building a campaign for a high court seat being vacated by Justice Robert Benham. But the May 2020 election disappeared last week when Benham decided to resign next March rather than retire when his term ended in December 2020.

Gov. Brian Kemp will now choose Benham's successor, and Doyle has said she'll both apply for Kemp's consideration for the high court—and file papers to run for her current seat on the Court of Appeals. Eight candidates were seeking her seat, and at least two have said they are staying in the race now that they will be facing an incumbent.

Doyle, who in June reported $213,000 on hand from more than 300 contributors for her high court race, told the Daily Report she is "meeting with my campaign finance person and attorney later this week to learn the process for dealing with the old and new campaigns."

"We will follow the ethics commission rules on how to handle the funds," she said.

Marc Hershovitz, who has advised then-Gov. Roy Barnes and other clients on political law issues, said Doyle cannot donate all of the funds from her high court campaign to her appeals court campaign.

She would need to ask donors from her high court race to redesignate the funds to her appeals court fund—or receive a refund.

Hershovitz said donors would need to sign something allowing the redesignation—saying "You can't do it verbally"—but he added that he had not researched whether an electronic signature would suffice.

Editor's note: The original version of this article misstated she would "file papers to run for her current seat on the Supreme Court." It should have said she would file papers for her current seat on the Court of Appeals.