Colorado Supreme Court Justice Michael Bender was just voted in by his colleagues as Chief Justice, replacing the retiring Mary Mullarkey. Bender, along with Mullarkey and Justices Nancy Rice and Alex Martinez, were the targets of a no retention effort by Clear the Bench Colorado. The effort may well have precipitated Mullarkey’s retirement. And though the other three justices held on to their posts, the opposition garnered an unprecedented approximate 40 percent of the vote.
To his credit, Bender doesn’t have the usual cookie-cutter government prosecutor background (see Colorado public disgrace, DA Mark Hurlbert, here and here). Unlike most recent appointees to the courts in Colorado and the rest of the country, Bender worked in private practice from 1979 until he was appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1997. He also did stints in the Jefferson County, Denver, and state public defender’s offices and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He will officially replace Mullarkey on November 30.
ExPat ExLawyer 
I agree, Laura, that we could do a lot worse than Mike Bender as our Chief Justice. I say this despite my suspicion that he is sanguine about, and likely complicit in, our manifestly corrupt attorney regulation system, in which knowing and blowing the right people immunizes even the most unethical of attorneys from serious discipline, even while those who courageously and successfully stand up for the little guy against the rich and powerful interests that control the State are singled out for persecution. He is the best of a bad lot, and certainly better than anyone Ritter or Dickinpooper would appoint to replace him.