My suggestion for the selection of judges.

It is a given that judicial appointments are too often political and judicial elections are too influenced by money. My suggestion to fill judicial vacancies would be to have the attorneys residing or having an office in the electoral jurisdiction vote under the auspices of the State Bar on the applications for any judicial appointment. Each lawyer and each law office would vote separately for one candidate and the top two candidates from each would move on in the appointment process. These top four candidates would then be submitted to the State Bar for their evaluation and the governor would then appoint the new judge from these four candidates.  It's not a perfect answer but this would allow the persons (attorneys) with the most knowledge of the judicial candidates to decide who would be the best judge for the vacancy. The State Bar would do the evaluation for the candidate and governor’s benefit and the governor would be able to decide his/her preference from the four candidates. Allowing for some preference but hopefully ensuring quality candidates.


For elections I would propose a retention vote whereby a judge would remain in office unless the voters by a 2/3rds majority voted for his/her non-retention. This significantly high requirement would discourage the removal of good judges but not eliminate the opportunity to remove bad judges.