re: the lead to an editorial I'm writing for this weekend or Monday:

It’s likely fewer than one voter in 10 knows anything about the Boise attorney selected for the Idaho Supreme Court this week: Warren Jones – other than the quirky fact that he won’t be the only justice named Jones. Yet, Gov. Butch Otter contends that fellow Idahoans will support his choice of Jones – Warren, not current Justice Jim Jones – once they get to know him. After introducing Jones in Coeur d’Alene Tuesday, Otter said: “I have every confidence that if the electorate studies Warren Jones as I have, they will see it’s a wise choice the Judicial Council made.” And there’s the rub. There’s no way for the electorate to decide if the Judicial Council made a wise choice until the primary election of 2008 when Jones will run as an incumbent, probably unopposed. In a maneuver that allows insiders on the Judicial Council and in Idaho bar circles, Justices Gerald Schroeder (pictured) and Linda Copple Trout are retiring this year to give fellow attorneys and judges, with Otter’s blessing, the privilege of picking their replacement. Like many justices before them, Schroeder and Trout don’t want to take the chance that the voters may elect someone they don’t want -- DFO.

Item: New judge named to state high court: Otter taps Boise trial lawyer to replace retiring Schroeder/Taryn Brodwater, Spokesman-Review

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