Landslide victories for 3 Colorado Supreme Court judges

The three very liberal and partisan Colorado Supreme Court judges who were up for retention in Tuesday's election are winning landslide victories over their mostly conservative opponents, according to data posted on Fox 31.

About 59% of voters were for retaining Alex J. Martinez for another 10-year term.

About 60% of voters were for retaining Michael L. Bender for another 10-year term.

About 62% of voters were for retaining Nancy E. Rice for another 10-year-term.

Clearly, while unaffiliated voters and some Democrats voted Republican by large margins in the state's attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state contests, they didn't buy the Clear the Bench campaign to unseat the judges as much as most Republicans did.

In other judicial elections, voters overwhelmingly voted to retain incumbent judges. Voters don't know judges and tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Posted by Donald E. L. Johnson on 11/03/2010 at 06:14 AM

To be fair Don, a 40 percent no-retain vote is pretty damnning as they would normally get more like 80 percent without a campaign against them. You are correct though that voters don’t usually know much about them and give them the benefit of the doubt - particularly when they read about the supposedly impartial evaluations from the Commission on Judicial Performance. They have never recommended a no-retain for the Supreme Court and they give retains over 99 percent of the time - the same that the teachers union gets.

In Larimer, there was a real clear cut issue against two legal losers who were disciplined last year for misconduct when they were DAs. Larimer voters appropriately gave an overwhelming no vote to Blair and Gilmore and soon we’ll have the amusing spectacle of watching these two hacks fend for themselves in the private sector.

I think we’ll see more ousters once we get an evaluation system that is more than a rubber stamp and recommends no-retains for say the worst performing 10 percent of the judges.

Posted by Laura Victoria on 11/03/2010 at 06:37 AM
Good comment, Laura. You know a lot more about this than I do. Thanks for the update on Larimer Cty.

Posted by Donald E. L. Johnson on 11/03/2010 at 07:56 AM

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