That happens a lot. Just over half our sitting judges first got their job by appointment. The actual choice we face is between having two methods, or giving up one of them up. It just shifts the politics from the ballot box into secret meeting rooms. A recent scandal involved a screening committee in North Florida, which poked into an applicant's divorce file trying to dig up dirt.
Election is a guaranteed remedy to the seedy politics of appointment.
A contender who is blackballed by the local Bar, or who is not of the governor's party, can take his case directly to the people. Conversely, a qualified lawyer who is unwilling or unsuited for the ballot box can seek a seat by appointment. Each offers a way around the other's flaws. The cold fact is, we have used retention elections for our appeals judges for a quarter-century, and no judge has ever been removed. As little information as the voters have in a contested election, they have even less in deciding whether a judge should be retained.