DENVER -- University of Colorado Regent Cindy Carlisle said Sunday that she will not vote for Republican Bruce Benson as the next president of CU.

In an editorial in the Daily Camera, Carlisle said the outcry of opposition to Benson's nomination changed her mind.

"I've since attended three forums at which the candidate engaged with students, with staff and with faculty; had more than a hundred conversations with people at CU-Boulder, at other campuses, and in government; and learned a great deal of new information from nearly a dozen people who worked closely with Benson in higher education," Carlisle wrote. "Bruce Benson's strengths finally were not enough to overcome the flawed process that did him and the university a grave disservice."

Carlisle blamed the process by which Benson was the single finalist from a search committee designed to present the regents with a number of candidates for the job.

She called the single-finalist process "defective and polarizing" and urged a new search be opened and two more finalists presented.

"In recent days I learned for the first time that at least two candidates for the CU presidency not only had strong academic credentials but were leaders of large state university systems with more students and more campuses than CU. I have no idea why they were never presented to the board," Carlisle wrote.

Benson, an oil executive and major fundraiser for the Republican Party, has been criticized for his lack of experience.

House Majority Leader Alice Madden openly called Benson's selection as sole finalist for University of Colorado president "a really bad joke."

Republican lawmakers praised Benson's dedication to CU as demonstrated by the $1 billion fundraising campaign he led. They also pointed out that Gov. Bill Ritter appointed him to serve as a co-chair of a panel studying the future of Colorado's education system, from kindergarten through graduate school.

The regents have to wait until at least Feb. 13 to decide if they will hire Benson but no date for a vote has been set. Since being named the finalist, Benson has been visiting CU campuses to meet with faculty, staff, students and alumni.