Why have retention elections?

There was a lot of controversy leading up to the recent retention elections in Salt Lake County. Some people even made comments that judges shouldn't have to go through retention elections. Judge Lewis was not a judge that was praised by all attorneys. If you don't believe me, take a look at the survey results published in the "Voter Information Guide." Yes she received high enough marks to stand for retention election, but, in my school days, they wouldn't have qualified for straight A's.
Should we even have retention elections? Yes!! Our judges need to be accountable to the public. I've heard other people say that they've never been to a court room so they don't know how to vote in the retention elections. (Most of those people have probably also not been to a City Council meeting in the past four years, but, feel fine voting for a new City Council Member.) My argument is just as with the City Council elections, you read the material available (Voter Information Guide) and pick those issues that are important to you and vote accordingly.
Apparently, 55.31% of people that voted in the retention election felt that courtesy in the courtroom was an important issue.