Know your judges: New Mesa County appointment highlights Colorado’s selection process

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

Know your judges

I got another old story that got bumped as I got busy, but I didn’t want to let it go due to its importance.

Per the article linked first below, Gov. Polis back in early May appointed a new judge in the Mesa County Judicial District. Quoting with link intact:

“Effective on July 1, 2026, Courtney L. Dinnel will serve as a Mesa County Court Judge. The appointment was made to fill a new judgeship created by SB25-024, which increased the number of judges in certain county courts, including Mesa County’s, by one.”

Interestingly, this judge moved all the way from Adams County to Mesa County. Given the way judges are appointed in this state and given Polis’/Democrats’ hold on judicial appointment boards, I find this an interesting choice.

Were there no suitable folks in Mesa County to be a judge in… Mesa County?

I don’t know if you were aware, but you can look up judges’ performance evaluations online. You needn’t wait for the blue book.

I found the most recent evaluation for Judge Dinnel and link to it second below. I wasn’t expecting anything too illuminating given the quick once-over judges get in this state, but I include it so you can have a little more background on Judge Dinnel.

Learn about and know the people that make decisions big and small in this state.

https://www.westernslopenow.com/top-stories/governor-polis-appoints-new-judge-to-the-mesa-county-court/

https://judicialperformance.colorado.gov/dinnel-courtney-l-2024-evaluation

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Shake hands with the Office of New Americans

The Colorado Office of New Americans (ONA-their site is linked first below) was, at least conceptually, initially conceived by the nonprofit Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. I link to the Coalition’s site second below.**

Governor Polis, in response created the “New American Integration Initiative” in 2019 as an executive agency, to be housed in the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

ONA only became ONA later with the passage of HB21-1150, a bill charging the organization with implementing (quoting from the bill’s fiscal note found in the fourth link below):

“… a statewide strategy to facilitate economic stability and promote successful economic, social, linguistic, and cultural integration by investing in the success of immigrants in Colorado.”

There is a whole lot of material and sites you can poke around in if you want to learn about ONA. I think the fastest route to getting acquainted is to look at their fiscal year 2025 annual report (the most recently available at the time of this writing). I link to that report fifth below.

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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