The governor has named a woman to the district court who was questioned about her marriage when she recently applied for an opening on the Iowa Court of Appeals. Jeanie Kunkle Vaudt is now a district court judge in a district that covers 16 central and southern Iowa counties.
Last year Vaudt was a finalist for an opening on the Iowa Court of Appeals. During a public interview with the Iowa Judicial Nominating Commission, Vaudt was asked if she was breaking the “covenant vows” of her marriage after she raised the issue of her husband’s out-of-state job. Vaudt is the wife of David Vaudt, the Republican who served a decade as state auditor before resigning last May to lead a national accounting board. She has continued to work in Des Moines, as an assistant attorney general.
Vaudt has said publicly she is a “devoted spouse” who has supported her husband’s career choices and he supports her dream to become a judge. Vaudt has been an assistant state attorney general since 1998. She worked at a Des Moines law firm a few years before that.
She will now serve in the judicial district that covers the following counties: Adair, Adams, Clarke, Dallas, Decatur, Guthrie, Jasper, Lucas, Madison, Marion, Polk, Ringgold, Taylor, Union, Warren and Wayne.