Vander Plaats is back and this time he's got three State Supreme Court Justices in his sights- mounting a campaign to convince voters not to retain them when they come up for their retention votes in November.
First of all, and believe me I can't believe I'm saying this, but kudos to Vander Plaats for figuring it out: process matters! No crazy executive declarations, but rallying the voters behind a cause. OK, so it's a cause I don't agree with, but the fact the guy seems to be actually proposing to do things right this time is a giant step forward in my book. (Oh and he's not endorsing Branstad and not mounting an independent bid for Governor either, preferring to concentrate his fire on the State Supreme Court Justices instead.)
One small, potential flaw with this grand plan: retention votes, if memory serves are usually at the ass-end of the ballot and you have to rely on voters paying attention that long, actually going to the polls and knowing whom to retain and not to retain when they get there. Although I'm happy Mr. Vander Plaats seems to be respecting the democratic process for once, I'm less wild about the notion of politicizing our judiciary at the ballot box as judicial decisions are usually picked apart and politicized to death without bringing voters into this.
We'll see how this builds... it's certainly an interesting strategy.
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