Journal Editorial: Going after judges isn’t the solution
from the Muscatine Journal
Bob Vander Plaats -a Sioux City Republican who has unsuccessfully run for governor in 2002, 2006 and 2010 -has set his sights on new targets: The Iowa Supreme Court justices whose ruling in 2009 legalized same-sex marriages in Iowa. He has launched a campaign encouraging Iowans in November to vote no on the retention votes for Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices David Baker and Michael Streit.
The message will be heard loud and clear both here in Iowa and across the country," Vander Plaats wrote over the weekend in an editorial in the Des Moines Register. "The ruling class ignores the people at its peril."
His language may well appeal to Iowans who are unemployed, anxious and angry about tough times that have gripped them right along with the rest of the country. But if he succeeds, what Vander Plaats will ultimately do is open the door for campaign finance becoming as important to members of Iowa's judicial branch as it is to those in the executive and legislative branches of state government.
And that is not a good thing. The last thing Iowa needs is politicized judicial races.
