DES MOINE, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Senate Democratic nominee Abby Finkenauer qualifies for a primary vote, rejecting a lower court ruling and allowing her to continue her nomination and chance campaign. to confront the longtime Republican senator. Charles Grassley.
The court ruling leaves Finkenauer as the likely favorite in the race with two lesser-known candidates ahead of the June 7 primary in Iowa. The winner will fight Grassley, who is running for an eighth Senate seat.
“This is a time for all defenders of democracy – Democrats, Republicans and independents – to celebrate the enduring power of our democratic process and to remind ourselves never to take it for granted,” Finkenauer said in a statement.
She said it was more than a victory for her campaign, but for justice for Iowans and democracy, which prevailed over “useless guerrilla attacks organized by Republicans in Washington and Senator Grassley’s allies seeking to silence the people of Iowans and to undermine the democratic process. “
Her lawyer, Gary Dickey, said the unanimous decision showed the court had set politics aside to achieve the right legal result.
Opponent of Republicans’ lawyer Alan Ostergren said the legislature should reform the law, listing what should be in the nomination petition and the consequences of non-compliance.
“The only reason these issues have been challenged is that Abby Finkenauer’s campaign failed to give enough signatures to have a comfortable border – something that every other political campaign has managed to do this cycle,” he said.
The court rejected the lower court’s ruling, which found that Finkenauer had failed to comply with a state law requiring candidates to submit at least 100 signatures from at least 19 constituencies in order to qualify. A majority of the judges agreed that a Polk County judge had erred in ruling that three signatures from two counties were invalid, leaving Finkenauer without enough signatures.
The court said last year the legislature passed new sections of the law that identify specific circumstances in which objections to petitions must be upheld.
“The legislator did not include missing or incorrect dates as one of the grounds for objecting to the petition. “We come to the conclusion that recent legislation takes precedence,” the court said.
The court returned the case to the judge of the district court and an order was issued to reject the appeal of the objectors.
The court acknowledged that the decision was not easy.
“Regular interpretation is not like proving mathematical theorems, and it is sometimes difficult to find a clear answer that is intellectually satisfying. In the end, we believe that we should be guided by the last word of the legislature on the subject, “it said.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruling upheld an earlier election commission ruling that Finkenauer had qualified to vote. Two Republican activists filed the initial challenge and appealed the panel’s decision to the district court.
Finkenauer called the decision of Polk County Judge Scott Beatty “a useless guerrilla attack.” Beatty was appointed in 2018 by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who also appointed four judges to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Fickenauer of Cedar Rapids is best known as one of the first women elected to the Iowa House of Representatives and the second youngest member of the House in US history to win the 2018 election at the age of 29 and just 10 months older than the representative. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York.
The other Democrats who want the Democrats’ nomination are Mike Franken, a retired naval admiral, and Glenn Hearst, a doctor and member of Mindon City Council.
Each Democrat will be seen as far from Grassley, who has held office since 1959. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1974 and the Senate in 1980.
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This story has been corrected to show that Finkenauer’s hometown is Cedar Rapids, not Dubuque.
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