Gavel Grab

Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate, Congressman Kenny Hulshof, has announced that while he continues to favor merit selection for state judges (as Gavel Grab previously noted), he’d like to see some changes in the process.

Currently, a panel made up of three lawyers elected by the Missouri State Bar, three citizens appointed by the governor, and the local presiding appellate judge submits a slate of three names to the governor for selection.  

According to an Associated Press article, Congressman Hulshof called for numerous changes, including: 

• Replacing the lawyers with randomly selected state judges.
• Replacing the current presiding judge with a randomly selected former state Supreme Court Justice.
• Sending the governor five nominees for the bench instead of three, and allowing the governor to choose his or her own nominee after rejecting two slates submitted by a review commission.

Hulshof’s comments also are discussed in the Kansas City Star’s Prime Buzz column.

In his remarks, Congressman Hulshof complained that “the nonpartisan plan has become partisan,” tilting toward Democratic jurists favored by plaintiff’s lawyers, but in the Kansas City Star’s Prime Buzz column,  former Republican governor John Ashcroft’s chief of staff flatly disagreed.

Congressman Hulshof’s Democratic opponent, Attorney General Jay Nixon, wants to retain the current selection procedure. Any change would require a constitutional amendment, and an attempt by Republican lawmakers to scrap the system failed in the last legislative session.  

Tags: Hulshof, Merit Selection, Missouri, Nixon