If you find yourself flipping through the State of Alaska’s Official Election Pamphlet, you’ll find the judges toward the end. First you’ll see a judge’s photo and biography. The next page is where you’ll see the Alaska Judicial Council’s recommendation on whether to retain that judge.
For the 21 judges up for retention election, the vast majority of recommendations are “yes” – meaning that the judge has met or exceeded performance standards.
For two judges, the recommendation is “no.” And for one judge, the council didn’t make any recommendation.
That judge is Juneau Superior Court Judge Marianna Carpeneti.
“As far as we can tell here at the Judicial Council staff, in our looking through the files that are available, as far as we know, it’s never happened before,” the council’s executive director, Susanne DiPietro, said.
DiPietro said recommendations are based on evaluations. Those evaluations are based on survey responses from jurors, social workers, law enforcement officers, attorneys, and court employees.
Judges often score well on those because it’s a pretty high bar to become a judge in Alaska in the first place.
“What we have seen over the years is that the judges standing for retention typically get very, very, very high reviews and ratings,” she said. “And in short, after this very rigorous selection process, the people who get on the bench, in general, tend to perform quite well and be quite successful.”
But retention elections help hold them to that high standard once they are on the bench.
Carpeneti first became a Juneau Superior Court Judge in 2021. This is her first retention election.
The Judicial Council is made up of seven members: three attorneys and three non-attorneys, and the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court is the chair.
The council did not make a recommendation because the members didn’t reach enough of a consensus. Carpeneti received two “yes” votes and three “no” votes, but two members had to abstain due to conflicts of interest. The council needs four agreeing votes to act.
So for the first time in the council’s history, it didn’t issue a recommendation.
Compared to the other judges, Carpeneti’s evaluation showed lower than average scores from law enforcement, attorneys and social workers. On the other hand, her scores from jurors and court employees were similar to the other judges.
DiPietro said the council issuing a recommendation not to retain judges is also very rare — the council hasn’t done that in more than a decade.
But this year, alongside the first non-recommendation for Carpeneti, the council also issued recommendations against retention for two judges in Kenai.
Dennis DeWitt has been a non-attorney member of the council since 2023. He lives and works in Juneau. He voted not to recommend Carpeneti’s retention and said he based that decision partly on those lower scores she received from law enforcement and probation officers.
“I think the peace and probation officers are an important part of the entire judicial system and activity,” he said. “And I think it’s important for judges to be respectful for them and their part of what’s going on, as much as it is the lawyers who are in front of them or anybody else that’s interacting with them.”
But his no vote wasn’t solely based on that. He said she also demonstrated a lack of growth. The judges get an informal evaluation a few months ahead of the official evaluation.
He said he doesn’t think Carpeneti progressed in the time between the informal and official evaluation.
“Has there been any growth or change on those areas where there were shortfalls?” DeWitt said. “With Judge Carpeneti, I didn’t see any growth.”
Carpeneti presided over high-profile cases in recent years, including the case against a man accused of killing a woman on a Juneau trail, which ended when she dismissed the charges against the man due to lack of evidence.
But DeWitt said the council avoids basing their recommendations on specific cases.
“We try and stay away from specific cases, and there’s a good reason for that,” he said. “There are a lot of cases that come up that are unpopular, and judges are not required to be popular, and we don’t want that to become the hallmark of how we choose our judges.”
Savannah Fletcher disagrees. She’s been an attorney member of the council since 2025. This was her first time participating in the recommendation process.
She voted yes to recommend Carpeneti’s retention, and said she has seen improvement.
“She showed signs of a strong commitment to her work and a lot of improvement from feedback, especially for judges who are up for retention for the first time,” Fletcher said. “And to see the way that she has incorporated it and taken it seriously and tried to improve and grow, that’s what I would hope from a judge.”
Though the council didn’t issue a recommendation for Carpeneti, Fletcher said voters can still access relevant information.
“I still encourage people to look at the comments and the retention page for Judge Carpineti provided by the judicial council because I still think it has helpful information,” she said.
Alaska judges up for retention are not allowed to run campaigns unless there is an active campaign against them. Carpeneti didn’t respond to KTOO’s request for comment.
The last day to vote on retaining judges, as well as on candidate races and ballot measures is Election Day on Nov. 3.
For information on other candidates on the ballot, see our 2026 Alaska Voter Guide.
