Reply #12: it's always been bothersome to me that judges are elected in some states

[fizzgig]

here in colorado judges are appointed by the governor, but they first must be nominated by their peers and then a panel of attorneys and citizens send three nominees to the governor.

the only complaint i have about that is that almost all of them come straight from the da's office, with a few civil attorneys thrown in. there is only one former defense attorney on the bench in my district. there's one defense attorney who's been nominated several times, but he's never been appointed. i've watched him in the courtroom on many occasions and i think he'd been a good choice.

we do, however, vote to retain judges. i think there's a vote after they've served two years and then it's every six after that, but i don't now that there's ever been one who hasn't been retained. i don't vote on retention if i'm not familiar with the judge, but there are two in my district i will vote against the next time they're up for retention.