Governor Reynolds (file photo)
Governor Kim Reynolds has responded after questions about the timing of her recent appointment of a district court judge, saying the appointment was made by the constitutional deadline.
The governor has 30 days to pick a new judge after names are submitted to her from the nominating commission. Reynolds says she appointed of Sixth District Judge Jason Besler on time — but did not notify Besler the Judicial Branch, and the media until June 25th — four days after the deadline passed.
“I did make the decision. I made that appointment. I told the chief of staff and that’s typically how we do it when I make the decision on who we are going to appoint and then we make the phone calls after that. I didn’t get the phone call made,” according to Reynolds. She couldn’t say why she didn’t notify Besler earlier.
“I don’t know. I can’t tell you. We’re on the road. We’re busy. It wasn’t intentional because the decision had been made, I just failed to reach out to him,” Reynolds says. “As soon as we realized that we hadn’t made the phone call, and that it was past the timeline, we did notify the courts.”
Questions arose about the timing of the appointment after the Democratic blog “Bleeding Heartland” posted a letter from the chief justice’s office which said the chief justice has always considered an appointment to be made when it was communicated to the nominee, but he accepts the governor’s decision that it was made in time.
(Thanks to Joyce Russell, Iowa Public Radio)