UPDATE: James Harris, director of the non-profit Better Courts for Missouri, took issue with me suggesting that ShowMe Better Courts was formerly Better Courts for Missouri. They are two distinct groups, he says. Perhaps a history of the organization would help.

In January 2008, St. Louis attorney Bill Placke created a non-profit organization called Missourians for Open and Accountable Judicial Selection. That group, in turn, registered the fictitious name Better Courts for Missouri as one of its names. Jonathan Bunch, an attorney who previously worked for Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration, was listed as the registered agent.

A month later, Placke created a campaign committee registered with the Missouri Ethics Commission called Missourians for Better Courts. Placke, a member of the Federalist Society who helped lead the criticism of the Missouri Plan, no longer lives in Missouri.

During the legislative session, Harris was pushing changes to the Missouri Plan under the Better Courts for Missouri banner, and he suggested if the Legislature didn’t pass his bill, then a harsher proposal would come forward via the initiative petition process.

In May, some clever lawyers who are opposed to Harris’ group, registered campaign committees with the Missouri Ethics Commission called “Better Courts for Missouri,” “Missourians for Better Courts,” and “Missourians for Open and Accountable Judicial Selection.”

Harris then formed a new MEC committee, with Springfield’s Larry Russell as treasurer, called ShowMe Better Courts.

JEFFERSON CITY — The group trying to change the way Missouri chooses many of its judges has re-filed a ballot initiative after making some changes.

ShowMe Better Courts (formerly Better Courts for Missouri), is seeking to get rid of the plan by which judicial commissions offer up judge nominees to the governor and replace it with the federal system, where the governor nominates anybody he wants and the Senate confirms (or doesn’t confirm) his pick.

The group, led by executive director James Harris, failed to get a similar plan adopted by the Legislature this year, and following through on a threat made during that debate, filed a petition to completely get rid of the Missouri Plan. Harris is a Republican lobbyist who used to work for former Gov. Matt Blunt.

But shortly after the petition was filed, the Secretary of State’s office received an anonymous letter complaining of various technical problems with the language of the proposed petition. So Harris’ group withdrew the petition and re-filed it today.

Harris’ new organization does not yet show any campaign donations on file. The Missouri Bar has defended the Missouri Plan and says Harris and his cohorts haven’t pointed to any bad Missouri judges or bad Missouri legal decisions to indicate the current method of selecting judges isn’t working.