A local district judge, Matt Chandler, 45, with a legal career prosecuting and on the bench spanning over 20 years, says he’s retiring to Texas for “a new career in the law,” according to The Eastern New Mexico News.
Chandler, “joined the District Attorney’s office in 2002. He was elected DA in 2004, held the job 10 years, then was appointed to the bench in 2015,” the outlet reported. The partisan Democrat-controlled New Mexico Senate previously rejected his nomination to be a regent of the University of New Mexico in 2015.
“Serving the state of New Mexico … has been a dream come true,” Chandler said. “It truly has been an absolute honor and privilege.”
Chandler told the News that has accepted a job in Lubbock for a corporation that provides legal representation for all 50 states. “My primary focus will be New Mexico and West Texas,” he said.
The jurist unsuccessfully ran for attorney general against then-incumbent Gary King in 2010 and was subsequently appointed to the bench in 2015 by former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.
The News reports that “Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will select Chandler’s successor.”
This will give the Governor an opportunity to appoint a far-left activist judge to a conservative area of the state’s judicial seats.
The process to fill the seat reportedly begins Aug. 25 when a Judicial Nominating Commission is slated to meet at 9 a.m. at the Curry County Courthouse to evaluate applicants. The deadline to apply is August 6.