New Mexico judicial evaluation commission recommends retaining 41 judges in November election

A statewide commission that evaluates judges is recommending that New Mexico voters retain nearly every sitting judge who will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.

For state-level courts, the governor appoints judges from a nominating committee’s pool to fill vacancies. Appointed judges must compete in the first general election that occurs one year after their appointment and must run in subsequent retention elections for each additional term. 

State Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges serve eight-year terms while District Court judges serve six-year terms. Each must win 57% of the vote in a retention election to keep their seat, according to the New Mexico Constitution.

The New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission recommended that voters keep 41 of the state’s 43 judges who are up for retention. The two judges who did not earn an endorsement — Douglas Decker of the 11th Judicial District Court and Stephen Ochoa of the 12th Judicial District Court — have not been in their roles long enough to receive a full evaluation, the commission said in a Friday announcement.

This marks the second consecutive contest in which JPEC recommended retention for every evaluated judge, according to Commission Chair Denise Torres, who said in a statement it’s also “worth noting that some judges have shown improvement in their survey scores since their previous evaluations.”

The Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, which was first approved via a constitutional amendment in the late 1980s, gathers feedback on judges from lawyers, interpreters, parole officers, court staff and other officials who interact regularly with them. The evaluations focus on legal ability; fairness; communication skills; preparation; temperament; attentiveness; and control over proceedings.

Lee Hunt, the commission’s vice chair, in a statement said that judges who earned relatively low scores in some of those metrics have given the commission detailed explanations on how they plan to improve. JPEC meets with each judge one-on-one to review their surveys.

“We believe these judges and the majority of the judges we evaluate work to continually improve as they gain more experience on the bench,” Hunt said.

According to a news release, JPEC also reviews statistics for each judge from the Administrative Office of the Courts, including caseloads, excusals and time taken to resolve cases.

Detailed breakdowns for each of the commission’s 2026 judicial evaluations are available on its website in English and Spanish.

Torres noted that the judicial retention questions will appear toward the bottom of what may be long ballots, and encouraged voters to “take the time to go all the way through the ballot. Your vote does matter.”