5 judges up for retention in Iowa Q-C

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By Ann McGlynn | Wednesday, October 29, 2008 12:07 PM CDT | () comments

Four district court judges and one associate court judge from the Iowa Quad-City region will be on the ballot in November for voters to determine whether they should remain judges.

J. Hobart Darbyshire, Marlita Greve, Mary Howes and Gary McKenrick are district court judges for Cedar, Clinton, Jackson, Muscatine and Scott counties. Christine Dalton Ploof is an associate court judge for Scott County.

Three Iowa Supreme Court and three Iowa Court of Appeals judges also are up for retention.

Iowa Supreme Court judges face retention votes every eight years, while appellate and district court judges stand for retention every six years. Judges also stand for retention after their first full year following appointment.

Iowa’s “merit” system dictates that while judges are appointed by the governor or fellow judges upon the recommendation of a committee, they are periodically placed on the ballot for voters to determine whether they are fulfilling their roles. In place since 1962, it is the most common method of judicial selection. The second most-used is partisan election, as in Illinois.

If a judge in Iowa receives a simple majority of yes votes for retention, they serve another full term. If not, they are removed from office at the end of the year.

What should a voter look for in a retention election?

“Is somebody displaying the kinds of qualities we want in our judges?” said Rachel Cauffield, a research fellow at the Hunter Center for Judicial Selection at the American Judicature Society. The organization is based at Drake University in Des Moines. “Taking just a few minutes to find out about judges is really important.”

Faithfulness to the law and demeanor should be top considerations, Cauffield said.

“Judges have a job to do — be faithful to the law and not faithful to public opinion,” she said. “An attack on individual opinions is inconsistent to what a retention election is. A judge’s responsibility is not to follow what is politically popular.”

Voters can find out more about their judges by looking at the Iowa Bar Association’s Plebiscite, a member survey of the 60 judges up for retention in Iowa, including the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges, she said. The survey is at iowabar.org.

The lawyers, who are lawyers who appear often before judges, are asked questions about the knowledge, demeanor and efficiency of judges. They are then asked to indicate whether or not they would vote for that judge to be retained.

In District 7, Greve received the highest percentage of yes votes, with 94 percent. McKenrick received a 92 percent approval rating, Howes an 87 percent and Darbyshire an 86 percent approval rating. Dalton Ploof posted a 66 percent approval rating, the lowest of the 60 judges in the state.

Alan Fredregill, a Sioux City attorney and co-chairman of the committee that oversaw the survey, said the poll’s consistently high marks should help eliminate doubts voters may have about retaining the judges.

“There’s a high degree of confidence in our Iowa judicial system,” Fredregill said.

He said the results of the survey also indicate that Iowa judges are ruling based on facts and the law rather than personal opinions. Citizens shouldn’t vote against retention because they disagree with a judge’s ruling on a controversial issue, such as gay marriage, he said.

A group of citizens mounted an unsuccessful campaign to oust Woodbury County District Court Judge Jeffrey Neary in 2004 based on Neary’s decision to grant a divorce to two lesbians who had entered into a civil union in Vermont.

The judicial branch also publishes a voter guide, which includes biographical information about each of those judges.

The branch’s Web site allows voters to search the appellate court opinions of cases involving each of the judges. Typing the name of the judge into the search mechanism will pull up 10 years worth of opinions. That Web site is at iowacourtsonline.org.

Dalton Ploof, Darbyshire, Greve and Howes declined comment about the upcoming retention ballot.

McKenrick commented, “I believe my record, both appellate and otherwise, is a good one. I appreciate the support shown in the judicial retention plebiscite of the Iowa Bar Association.”

(Fred Love of the Lee Enterprises Des Moines bureau contributed to this report.)

Judge ratings

The Iowa State Bar Association asks its members to rate judges up for retention. Here are the results for the four district court and one associate court judges on the ballot. One is the lowest score; five is the highest.

Knowledge and application of the law

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.03

Marlita Greve: 4.33

Mary Howes: 3.80

Gary McKenrick: 4.33

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.49

Perception of factual issues

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.02

Marlita Greve: 4.38

Mary Howes: 4.06

Gary McKenrick: 4.30

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.50

Punctuality for court proceedings

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.22

Marlita Greve: 4.52

Mary Howes: 4.23

Gary McKenrick: 4.42

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.93

Attentiveness to arguments and testimony

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.09

Marlita Greve: 4.52

Mary Howes: 4.07

Gary McKenrick: 4.35

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.66

Management and control of courtroom

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.11

Marlita Greve: 4.41

Mary Howes: 4.09

Gary McKenrick: 4.44

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.67

Temperament and demeanor

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 3.74

Marlita Greve: 4.61

Mary Howes: 4.08

Gary McKenrick: 4.29

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.42

Clarity and quality of written opinions

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.01

Marlita Greve: 4.39

Mary Howes: 3.89

Gary McKenrick: 4.38

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.46

Promptness of rulings and decisions

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.12

Marlita Greve: 4.58

Mary Howes: 3.97

Gary McKenrick: 4.34

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.84

Avoids undue personal observations or criticisms of litigants, judges and lawyers from bench or in written opinions

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 3.82

Marlita Greve: 4.59

Mary Howes: 4.13

Gary McKenrick: 4.26

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.44

Decides cases on basis of applicable law and fact, not affected by outside influence

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.03

Marlita Greve: 4.55

Mary Howes: 4.11

Gary McKenrick: 4.26

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.43

Is courteous and patient with litigants, lawyers and court personnel

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 3.75

Marlita Greve: 4.69

Mary Howes: 4.24

Gary McKenrick: 4.33

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.61

Treats people equally regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status or disability.

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 4.20

Marlita Greve: 4.67

Mary Howes: 4.35

Gary McKenrick: 4.46

Christine Dalton Ploof: 3.91

Should this judge be retained?

J. Hobart Darbyshire: 85.7 percent yes

Marlita Greve: 94.2 percent yes

Mary Howes: 86.8 percent yes

Gary McKenrick: 92.3 percent yes

Christine Dalton Ploof: 66 percent yes

Source: Iowa Bar Association

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About the judges

J. Hobart Darbyshire

Appointed: 1995

Education: B.A. from Morningside College, 1964; J.D. from University of Iowa, 1967

Career: Darbyshire served as a law clerk for Clay LeGrand, an Iowa Supreme Court justice, from 1967-68; practiced law in Rockwell City, Mapleton and Davenport; served as a part-time U.S. magistrate for the Southern District of Iowa from 1972-79

Marlita Greve

Appointed: 2006

Education: B.S. from Upper Iowa University, 1990; J.D. from the University of Iowa, 1992

Career: Greve was a trial lawyer in private practice from 1992 through 2006.

Mary Howes

Appointed: 2006

Education: B.A. from Drake University, 1979; J.D. from the University of Iowa, 1982

Career: Howes was an assistant Scott County attorney for seven years. She was appointed Scott County magistrate in 1993, a district associate court judge in 2000 and then district court judge in 2006.

Gary McKenrick

Appointed: 1999

Education: B.S.S. from Cornell College, 1979; J.D. from the University of Iowa, 1982

Career: McKenrick was a law clerk in the 7th Judicial District from 1982-93. He was in private practice from 1983 to 1993. He was appointed an associate court judge in 1993 before being named district court judge in 1999.

Christine Dalton Ploof

Appointed: 2006

Education: B.A. Coe College, 1986; J.D. University of Iowa, 1989

Career: Dalton Ploof worked for the State Public Defender’s Office in Muscatine, at the Muscatine County Attorney’s Office and as a staff attorney at Muscatine Legal Services before being appointed district associate court judge.

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.