Four former Kansas governors have leapt into the effort to retain Kansas Supreme Court justices, reports The Hutchinson News.
The aim of the former governors is to keep the justices around, in order to keep the court fair and impartial.
It’s a bipartisan effort, with former Republican Govs. Michael Hayden and Bill Graves working alongside former Democratic Govs. John Carlin and Kathleen Sebelius. The group plans a media blitz next week to promote their judicial candidates. The effort is backed by Kansans for Fair Courts, a group seeking to retain the justices.
Kansas conservatives have recently expressed anger with the court over decisions on school finance and the death penalty. Two years ago Gov. Sam Brownback openly called for the justices to be removed. The state legislature can legally vote to oust the judges. In 2014 two of the high court’s judges were retained with just 52 percent of the vote. Though the rule has been in place for decades, no Kansas Supreme Court judge has ever been dismissed in this way.