Two Republican state representatives serving Webster County have different opinions of a proposal from leaders of their own party that would give legislators more say in how judges are selected in Iowa.

State Rep. Ann Meyer, of Fort Dodge, said Saturday that she prefers the current nonpartisan method of picking judges and state Supreme Court justices. She said during an Eggs and Issues forum that she doesn’t support the new plan.

“At this point, I’m not in favor of the legislation,” she said.

State Rep. Mike Sexton, of Rockwell City, said he supports the proposal. He said partisan politics are already seeping into the judicial selection process.

“You can’t sit there and tell me, ‘Mike, don’t bring politics into it,’ because it’s already part of it,” he said.

A question about the proposed change to the judge selection process was the first one the two lawmakers fielded during the forum at the Bioscience and Health Sciences Building at Iowa Central Community College. The forum, attended by about 40 people, had been rescheduled from the previous week due to a snow storm. Meyer and Sexton were the only lawmakers in attendance Saturday.

In an effort to eliminate partisanship in the state’s courts, the election of judges in Iowa was ended some 50 years ago.

A new system of picking judges was established in which panels of attorneys and citizens review the qualifications of judicial candidates and recommend potential appointees to the governor, who then makes the appointments.

The attorneys on the judicial nominating panels are picked by other attorneys. The citizens are picked by the governor.

This year, Republicans who control the Legislature introduced a measure in which they would pick the attorneys on those panels. A version of that plan has passed the House Judiciary Committee and is awaiting action by the full House.

Meyer said she has talked to lots of local lawyers about the proposal. She said she has also talked to lawyers she knows in other states about it. All of them, she said, have told her that the current system is a good way to pick judges.

“They’re happy with it regardless of their political affiliation,” she said.

“Every single communication I’ve received is in support of keeping it the same way,” she added.

Sexton said only a small number of attorneys participate in the judge selection process.

“In my opinion, it borders on the good old boys club,” he said. “That’s a concern for me.”

He said the lawyers that participated in a recent judicial selection process donated $437,000 to Democratic candidates and $97,000 to Republican candidates. He pointed to those figures as evidence that partisan politics have entered the process.

According to Sexton, the proposed change is a priority for Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican.

“She really wants this,” he said.

In addition to changing the way members of the judicial nominating panels are picked, the bill also limits the term of the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court to two years. The current chief justice is Mark Cady, of Fort Dodge, who was appointed to the high court by former Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican.

Sexton said he thinks that provision will be removed from the bill.

Meyer said she’s not sure why that change was included in the bill.