12:31 AM: Three Supreme Court justices losing in retention vote
Voters appear to have chosen not to retain three Iowa Supreme Court justices tonight.
With 96 percent of precincts reporting, the vote in each race is running against retention by roughly a 54 percent to 46 percent margin.
Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, along with Justices Michael Streit and David Baker appear set to lose their positions as voters gave in to a push to out the justices in the wake of last year’s controversial same-sex marriage ruling.
“We called their activist nature into question and voted all three off the court,” said Iowa for Freedom chairman Bob Vander Plaats as his watch party was winding down. “People are very energized and they’re very proud of Iowans for standing up to freedom and voting the justices out.”
But the “yes” crowd expressed worry, rather than anger or frustration, at the results. “We’re extremely concerned about what this would mean for the influence of outside special interest groups on our courts,” said Erin Seidler, spokeswoman for Justice, Not Politics, a non-profit organization that pushed to keep politics out of the judiciary and urged Iowans to retain the justices. “We’ve concerned with the precedent this sets."
“The result tonight is an unfortunate but direct result of nearly $1 million of negative campaign ads against our courts that were financed by out of state extreme special interest groups,” said Seidler.
But Vander Plaats believes the message applies nationally. “I think we sent a message not just all across Iowa but all across the country that we’re not going to take judicial activism,” he said. “The power still belongs to the people.”
-- By Kate Baier
Labels: 2010_election
