DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Three of 15 applicants to fill an Iowa Supreme Court vacancy have political ties to Gov. Kim Reynolds, including the Republican governor's senior legal counsel, underscoring concerns about her influence over the panel that chooses the finalists following a legislative change.

Applicants also include an attorney who assisted Reynolds after her election as lieutenant governor along with Gov. Terry Branstad in 2010, and a lawyer who represented Iowa in a contentious lawsuit filed by the largest state workers' union.

The 15 lawyers and judges — including Sam Langholz, the governor’s senior legal counsel and special adviser since July 2018 — will be interviewed by the State Judicial Nominating Commission on Friday. The commission will pick three finalists to forward to Reynolds who will have 30 days to appoint the new justice.

Reynolds has seated three judges since becoming governor and will name a fourth to fill the vacancy left by Democratic appointee Justice David Wiggins, who is retiring on March 13. And she can appoint nine commissioners — a majority — to the 17-member panel under a new law she signed last May.

For many who objected to the legislature’s changes to the commission last year, this decision on Supreme Court finalists could signal the group’s level of objectivity.

“I think this is the real test of this new commission. Are they just going to be a partisan rubber stamp now or will they continue Iowa’s merit-based tradition of making sure our judge pool is qualified based on the merits?” said Democratic Sen. Rob Hogg.

Hogg and others have argued that the changes inserted politics into the judicial selection system and potentially shifted the balance in favor of the governor, allowing her to ensure more conservative appointments to the courts.

Supporters of the measure said lawyers had too much clout in deciding which judicial nominees were sent to the governor and that the change places more control with the governor, an elected official, instead of non-elected members of the state bar association.

Another applicant with ties to Reynolds is Sharon Brenna Findley Bird, a county attorney who served on the transition team for Branstad and Reynolds as they prepared to take office in 2010. Bird then became the Branstad administration’s legal counsel and served as chief of staff.

Reynolds replaced Branstad as governor in 2017 when he was appointed ambassador to China.

Last year, a jury found Bird and Branstad discriminated against former Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey because he is gay, and he was awarded $1.5 million. The jury determined Branstad and Bird pressured him to resign and retaliated against him when he refused to quit by cutting his pay.

The case has been appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court and Bird said in her application that she would recuse herself from the case if she were to be named to the court.

A third applicant, Matthew McDermott, served as lawyer for the state in a contentious lawsuit filed by AFSCME Iowa Council 61. The union challenged a 2017 law that made sweeping changes to Iowa’s public employee collective bargaining statute. McDermott’s team won the lawsuit and a subsequent appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court which ruled the law change was constitutional.

McDermott was a lawyer for the Republican Party of Iowa from 2007–2012.

Reynolds declined to comment, spokesman Pat Garrett said.

Other applicants include a court of appeals judge, four district court judges, an assistant attorney general and several lawyers.