With the busiest part of the campaign season just ahead, Lt. Gov. Patty Judge said Thursday she and the governor are just beginning to spread their message. “Iowa is better off than almost any state in the nation,” Judge said, defending criticisms that the Culver Administration is largely responsible for the state’s perceived economic troubles. “It’s not perfect. Unemployment is still too high.” Overall, she and Gov. Chet Culver will remind the state’s residents what has been accomplished over the last four years, and what the priorities will be for the next four years, she said. Those include education, access to quality and affordable health care, jobs and civil rights. She alluded to a recent effort to remove a number of Iowa Supreme Court judges by saying the judicial system needs to be protected and that it has worked very well. At the same time Judge was touting what the Culver Administration has done, she also took some shots at Culver’s Republican opponent, former Gov.