Who Is Judge Andrew Baum? Appointed by Hickenlooper in 2017, Rated 7-0, Retained Once Before, and on the Douglas County Ballot This November

Andrew Baum is a district judge in Castle Rock, and his name is on the Douglas County ballot this fall with one question attached: shall he be retained in office? He has no opponent and does not campaign. If you have been through a divorce or a custody case in Douglas County in the past few years, or know someone who went through the county's sobriety or veterans court, there is a fair chance he was the judge. Here is who he is, from the two commissions that evaluated him, the court's own assignment orders and the Secretary of State's results.

Who appointed him, and when

Gov. John Hickenlooper appointed him to the 18th Judicial District bench in the summer of 2017; the commission's narrative says he "was appointed as a District Court Judge on August 1, 2017," and Notre Dame Law School's alumni notice of Aug. 21, 2017 reported the appointment. We did not find the governor's own release, so we cannot say whose seat he filled.

He served the two-year provisional term every new judge serves and was retained by 18th District voters in 2020. On Nov. 15, 2024, Gov. Jared Polis signed Executive Order A 2024 284 designating eight 18th District judges, Baum among them, as judges of the new 23rd Judicial District covering Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, effective Jan. 14, 2025. That is why his ballot line now says 23rd Judicial District and why the 23rd's commission, not the 18th's, evaluated him this year. This is his second retention vote, for a full six-year term.

What he did before the bench

He came to the law through the Army. The commission's narrative says he served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps from January 2003 to July 2007, with "two deployments to Iraq as part of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and a year as an appellate law attorney for the Army's Government Appellate Division." He then spent nearly nine years as a deputy district attorney in Denver, from October 2007 to July 2016, most recently in the office's economic crime unit according to Notre Dame's notice, and a year as a magistrate in the 18th Judicial District before his appointment. He holds both his undergraduate and law degrees from Notre Dame.

What the performance commission found

The 23rd Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance interviewed him, read opinions he wrote, watched him in court and reviewed surveys. Its 2026 finding: he meets performance standards, 7-0, with one commissioner absent and two of the commission's ten seats vacant.

The narrative describes his demeanor as "respectful, fair, kind, and just," says his written orders "are detailed and thoughtful, and provide in depth legal analysis on complicated issues," and credits him with leading "the effort to establish the newly mandated competency courts for the 23rd Judicial District." In the treatment courts it found him "open, calm, and consistent, with good use of motivational interviewing."

His 2020 evaluation, by the 18th District's commission, was also unanimous but told a more complicated story. It said the commission had done an interim review in 2019 "where concerns regarding some areas including, the application and knowledge of law, clarity, consistency of rulings, and control over the proceedings were addressed," that "some recent survey responses expressed concerns regarding his temperament and a gender bias," and that he "has been diligent in addressing concerns raised." Only 62 percent of responding attorneys said he met standards that year, and the commission "noted significant improvement."

"Judge Baum's demeanor is described as respectful, fair, kind, and just." The 23rd Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance, 2026.

The survey numbers

The commission's contractor emailed 347 attorneys and 454 non-attorneys who had been in his courtroom, plus a self-select invitation to 2,782 court staff; 23 attorneys and 18 non-attorneys responded, the largest sample of the four district judges on this ballot. On the question of whether he meets standards, 15 of 20 attorneys said yes and 5 said no; 14 of 17 non-attorneys said yes and 3 said no.

His overall score was 3.1 on a scale where 2 is "adequate performance" and 4 is "outstanding." The trend runs down: 3.6 in 2019 from 117 respondents, 2.9 in 2020, 3.3 in 2021, 3.4 in 2022, 3.3 in 2023, 3.0 in 2024, 2.9 in 2025, 3.1 now. His six category scores all sit between 3.0 and 3.2, with application and knowledge of law and fairness at the bottom at 3.0. For comparison, the two county judges on this ballot scored 3.5 and 3.3, and the other three district judges 2.6, 2.6 and 2.9.

How the county voted on him in 2020

The Secretary of State's abstract shows he was retained across the four-county 18th District by 323,567 to 166,152, or 66.07 percent yes. In Douglas County the vote was 117,792 to 66,232, 64.01 percent.

The rulings that reached the news

On Aug. 7, 2025, Colorado Politics reported that the Court of Appeals had reversed his orders imposing more than $850,000 in sanctions on two plaintiffs and their lawyer in a case called Brinkerhoff v. Thurber, because the justification for the amount "appeared nowhere in District Court Judge Andrew Baum's orders." The three-judge panel, which included Katharine Lum, who is also on this ballot, sent the case back for him to redo the orders. In January 2023 the same outlet reported the Court of Appeals had overturned travel restrictions he placed on a father in a divorce case. We have not reviewed his other rulings and will not characterize them beyond what the commission wrote.

As for party: the ballot lists none for any judge, the governor who appointed him is a Democrat, and the Douglas County Republican Party's online voter guide recommends retaining him. We found no organized opposition to him.

How to vote on him

Unlike the Supreme Court justice and the Court of Appeals judges at the top of the retention section, who appear on every ballot in Colorado, the 23rd Judicial District judges appear only in Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties. He is listed with the three other district judges, Victoria Klingensmith among them. A "yes" keeps him for six years; a "no" removes him at the end of this term and the governor appoints a replacement; a majority of the votes cast on the question decides it. Retention judges do not campaign. All thirteen judges on the Douglas County ballot drew a "meets standards" finding this year; our page on all thirteen has every narrative and vote count.

More: every race and measure on your ballot, the November ballot guide, and where to vote. We do not endorse candidates or take positions on judicial retention. Corrections to hello@discoverdougco.com.

*Election night: live results for every Douglas County race, measure and judge, with the first numbers after 7 p.m. on Nov. 3. Before then: where to vote in person, every drop box, and the deadlines, and who has voted so far.*