Majority Of Iowans Would Oust Judges Who Favored Gay Marriage, Poll Says

According to a new poll, a majority of Iowa voters would vote against at least one Iowa Supreme Court judge who ruled in favor of gay marriage.

The Iowa Poll of 550 likely voters shows that forty percent of Iowans will vote to remove the three judges, and 16 percent say they will vote against at least one judge. Forty-four percent of Iowans say they want to keep all three justices.

J. Ann Selzer, the pollster for The Des Moines Register, which commissioned the poll, called the numbers “very tricky to interpret.” “I think it suggests that some justices, and perhaps all, will be removed. It lines up along Democrat and Republican lines pretty easily, except for low-income voters, which is typically a Democratic constituency.”

The judges are being targeted for ouster by social conservatives who disagree with the court's unanimous April 2009 ruling that brought gay marriage to the Midwest.

Voters will decide in November whether to keep Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices David Baker and Michael Streit. The remaining four judges are not on the ballot this year.

The justices have already rejected the idea of campaigning to keep their posts.

Former gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats has spearheaded the movement to oust the judges. The Sioux City businessman has rented office space and hired six staffers to man his Iowa for Freedom campaign.

Vander Plaats, a staunch opponent of gay marriage, says the judges should be removed because they overstepped their authority.

“They voided the law and it should have gone back to the legislature,” he said on KCCI's Newsmakers. “We saw the Supreme Court go outside its jurisdiction. The legislature is responsible for creating all laws. [Iowa for Freedom] truly believes the [court] usurped the will of the people.”

“All power is inherent in the people, not the courts,” he added. “This is a great civics lesson on who makes law, executes law and amends the constitution.”

Vander Plaats has refused to answer questions about who's funding his group. But social conservative groups the Iowa Family Policy Center (IFPC), which endorsed Vander Plaats' gubernatorial campaign, and the anti-gay American Family Association (AFA) have contributed “several hundred thousand dollars,” Chuck Hurley, the IFPC's director said.

Three Republican 2012 presidential hopefuls have endorsed the campaign.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum are in favor of axing the judges for deciding in favor of gay marriage.