Betsy Woodruff writes at National Review:

It’s certainly not a sure thing, but the fate of one David Wiggins could play a key role in determining, on November 6, who becomes the leader of the free world.

David Wiggins is a justice on the Iowa Supreme Court, and this fall he’s up for a retention vote. A controversial decision about gay marriage has given rise to a sizeable grassroots movement among Hawkeye social conservatives who want to push him out. Their get-out-the-vote efforts could mobilize otherwise unmotivated conservative voters and tip the balance in Iowa. It’s a state where Mitt Romney was not expected to win, but he now trails by just two points in the Real Clear Politicsaverage.

This is happening because of the Iowa Supreme Court’s controversial 2009 decision on the state’s restricting its marriage licenses to straight coouples. The seven justices on the court ruled unanimously that the statute denied same-sex couples equal protection and didn’t serve a compelling state interest. But the kicker for conservatives, according to former Iowa GOP political director Craig Robinson, came when the court also stipulated that same-sex couples had now won the right to marry. The unconstitutionality of one statute doesn’t imply that its inverse is law, Robinson notes, but that was the result of the court’s ruling. Opponents of the ruling argue that in legislating from the bench, the justices overstepped their constitutional bounds and deserve to be thrown out.