Rule 28-203. Powers and duties of the commission.

A. Commission duties. The commission shall (1) evaluate the professional performance of judges eligible for retention elections who have served at least two (2) years in the judicial position to be evaluated or have sufficient data to achieve a statistically valid sample to be evaluated. However, upon a request of a judge, and at the discretion of the commission, a judge who does not have sufficient data to achieve a statistically valid sample to be evaluated may be interviewed and provided feedback; (2) ensure that its data collection and analysis processes are methodologically sound; (3) distribute questionnaires, conduct interviews and produce and distribute narrative profiles as provided in these rules; (4) obtain a self assessment from each judge to be evaluated; (5) conduct an interview with each judge being evaluated after the commission's review of a judge's information is complete. Neither the commission nor the judge may waive the interview process; (6) review any responses received from a judge prior to making any recommendation; and (7) release a final narrative and recommendation to the public on each judge subject to a retention election not less than forty-five (45) days prior to the general election. B. Commission powers. The commission may (1) obtain information on the performance of each judge to be evaluated from lawyers, including prosecutors, public defenders and private attorneys who have appeared before the judge, litigants, jurors, court staff, other judges serving on the same court and judicial resource personnel, including but not limited to, probation officers, law enforcement, social service caseworkers and CASA volunteers; and (2) if time and resources permit, conduct mid-term evaluations midway through a judge's term of office for the purpose of improving the judge's performance. Mid-term evaluations shall not be released to the public, except as provided in Subparagraph (1) of Paragraph F of Rule 28-205 NMRA.