DES MOINES, Iowa – Gov. Kim Reynolds selected Coleman McAllister, an assistant attorney general with the Attorney General of Iowa’s office, to replace retiring District Court Judge Karen Ramano in Judicial District 5C which encompasses Polk County.
The 5-C Judicial Nominating Commission nominated McAllister and Andrew Boettger, a partner at Attorney at Hastings, Gartin, & Boettger, LLP in Ames on March 28 from a pool of 14 candidates. Reynolds had 30 days to make her decision.
McAllister served in the Attorney General of Iowa’s office since 2014 where he worked in the Area Prosecutions Division. Before that McCallister served as the Sioux County Attorney, an office he held for seven years. Before his election in 2006 served as assistant county attorney in Sioux County for six years. McAllister, a Republican, was fired when he announced he was running for Sioux County Attorney.
Romano recently blocked changes to Iowa’s absentee voting law. The Iowa Supreme Court later partially affirmed her decision but lifted the injunction that prevented the state from shortening the early voting period. Romano in 2013 ordered a stay of the rule banning webcam abortions passed by the Iowa Board of Medicine 8 to 2 and later approved by the Iowa Legislature’s joint administrative rules committee. The Iowa Supreme Court later struck down that ban.
Photo Credit: Chris Zoeller/Mason City Globe Gazette