Kansas lawmaker wants higher bar for winning judicial retention elections

If one Kansas senator had his way, Supreme Court Justices Lee Johnson and Eric Rosen would not have survived their retention elections last fall.

Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Hiwatha Republican, introduced a bill Thursday that calls for judges to get two-thirds support from voters to keep their seat on the bench. A detailed bill was not available Thursday night.

“I am trying to empower the voters of Kansas,” Pyle said. “If (judges) are doing their job, why wouldn’t they get two-thirds of the vote from the people of Kansas?”

Generally, judges standing for retention grab about 70 percent of the vote. However, this year there was a concerted campaign to remove Rosen and Johnson from the bench for overturning the death penalty of two brothers convicted of a quadruple murder in Wichita. They finished with 53 percent.

Pyle’s bill comes at a time when lawmakers are looking to revamp the way Supreme Court justices are picked. Gov. Sam Brownback wants control of Supreme Court appointments with consent of the state Senate.

This story was originally published January 22, 2015 at 7:39 PM with the headline "Kansas lawmaker wants higher bar for winning judicial retention elections."