Acknowledgments and archives

The 2010 judicial primary campaign is over now and, before moving on, it's time for me to gratefully acknowledge those who helped me to get the word out about Cook County Circuit Court candidates.

I have to begin by thanking the candidates themselves. I was able to dig out a fair amount of stuff on my own -- but I could never have obtained and organized as much information as I did without the active cooperation of many of the candidates and their supporters. I suppose there may have been some stealth judicial candidates this time out -- people hoping to sneak by on the basis of a euphonious appellation or felicitous ballot position -- but, having looked closely, it is my opinion that most of the men and women who sought election to the Circuit Court in Cook County were trying their darndest to get word out about their campaigns and their credentials. I had regular email communications from several candidates about fundraisers and endorsements -- and when I got something wrong, as happened from time to time, oh my did I hear about it.

(Fine print on a sample ballot? Who ever heard of such a thing?)

I'm also grateful for all the assistance of Joyce Williams, who coordinates candidate evaluations for the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening. Thanks to Ms. Williams, I was able to put up the evaluations by Alliance members as soon as they were released. Allen Adomite of the Illinois Civil Justice League was quick to share information he received; I hope I was able to reciprocate at least occasionally. Avy Meyers of North Town News Magazine allowed me to post candidate interviews he conducted. Albert J. Klumpp, PhD, a Research Analyst with the Chicago firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, has been generous with his comments and his suggestions. CBA members will recall Klumpp's article in the January 2010 issue of the CBA Record, "What Influences the Voters?" Klumpp has written on the subject of judicial elections before. See, "Voter Information and Judicial Retention Elections in Illinois," 94 Ill. B.J. 538 (October 2006), and "Cook County Judicial Elections: Partisanship, Campaign Spending, & Voter Information," CBA Record, January 2007. Dr. Klumpp's 2005 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Illinois (Chicago) was entitled, "Judicial Retention Elections in Cook County: Exercise of Democracy, or Exercise in Futility."

Steve Levinthal, who started a Facebook page called Cook County - Know Your Judicial Candidates, was one of many people whose acquaintance I made during the course of this primary season. Actually, Facebook was a new acquaintance for me this primary season -- Judge William H. Hooks was one who nudged me in that direction -- and, thank heavens, all of my kids actually friended me.

This blog may actually have helped some voters make informed choices in judicial elections. There were over 8,000 hits on Page One of this blog in January -- and nearly 19,000 page views. People were stopping by -- and looking around. (Since I started tracking visits to Page One of this blog, over 71,000 visitors have viewed nearly 150,000 pages.) A lot of visitors seem to have emailed posts to others, increasing the 'reach' of this effort.

Anyway, it's time now to mothball the candidates' websites. I'll keep them here, on Page Two, for archival purposes. Some of these will still be 'live' in 2012; some are probably already gone. The only sites I'll leave up on Page One are those of the only two candidates who still have an election to worry about -- Daniel J. Gallagher and Maureen Masterson Pulia -- who will face each other in November in the race for the countywide McCarthy vacancy.

2010 Cook County Circuit Court candidate websites:

• James Michael Bailey
• Deidre Baumann
• Michael Ian Bender
• Eugene Joseph Berkes
• Steven James Bernstein
• Thomas David Bilyk
• Linnae Bryant
• John P. Callahan
• Joseph Chico
• David J. Coleman
• Ann Finley Collins
• Pamela Cotten
• Joanne F. Fehn
• Charles Francis Fitzgerald
• Michelle Hugghis Flagg
• Pat Flanagan
• Thomas Flannigan
• Daniel J. Gallagher
• Marvin W. Gray
• Jeffrey Greenspan
• John C. Griffin
• Edward S. Harmening
• Russell W. Hartigan
• William H. Hooks
• Linzey Jones
• Nicholas W. Karas
• Richard G. Karwaczka
• Peter M. Kramer
• Joan Marie G. Kubalanza
• Geary Kull
• Yehuda P. Lebovits
• Pamela M. Leeming
• William J. Luby
• Thomas V. Lyons
• Terry MacCarthy
• Daniel B. Malone
• Diann K. Marsalek
• Maritza Martinez
• Bonnie Carol McGrath
• Pamela McLean Meyerson
• Edmund Paul Michalowski
• Raymond W. Mitchell
• Kevin J. Murphy
• Thomas J. Murphy
• John Patrick Nyhan
• Thomas G. O'Brien
• Sharon Oden-Johnson
• Jesse Outlaw
• Sharon Finegan Patterson
• Nichole C. Patton
• Linda J. Pauel
• Maureen Masterson Pulia
• William Burnett Raines
• Sandra G. Ramos
• Abbey Fishman Romanek
• Frank James Ryan
• Tracey J. Stokes
• Susan Kennedy Sullivan
• Mary S. Trew
• Steven G. Watkins
• Thaddeus L. Wilson

What Cook County Circuit Court race are you looking for?

This post is a duplicate of the top post on Page One. Itwill stay on top of the page until after the February 2 primary. Scroll down the page to look for new posts.

Click on the vacancy and get information about all the candidates in that race.

Countywide races:

Berland vacancy
Bronstein vacancy
Dolan vacancy
Hayes vacancy
Kelley vacancy
McCarthy vacancy (contest in Republican primary only)
O'Malley vacancy (uncontested)
Riley vacancy

Subcircuit races:

This map will give you a rough idea of which subcircuit you're in. If you're still uncertain, check your voter registration card or use a site like the "Ballot Builder" on the Chicago Tribune website.

First Subcircuit
Coleman vacancy, Steele vacancy,
"A" vacancy (uncontested)

Third Subcircuit
Carmody vacancy, Darcy vacancy,
"A" vacancy

Ninth Subcircuit
Otaka vacancy, "A" vacancy

Eleventh Subcircuit
Riley vacancy

Fourteenth Subcircuit
"A" vacancy (uncontested)

Fifteenth Subcircuit
Lipinski vacancy, Panichi vacancy,
Phelan vacancy

Mary S. Trew appearance on NTNM "extras"

Mary S. Trew's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Trew is a candidate for the "A" vacancy in Cook County's 9th Judicial Circuit.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

William Burnett Raines' second appearance on NTNM

William Burnett Raines' second appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Raines is a candidate for the countywide Berland vacancy.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

William J. Luby appearance on NTNM "extras"

William J. Luby's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Luby is a candidate for the "A" vacancy in Cook County's 9th Judicial Subcircuit.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

Deidre Baumann appearance on NTNM "extras"

Deidre Baumann's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Baumann is a candidate for the countywide Berland vacancy.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

Joanne Fehn appearance on NTNM "extras"

Joanne Fehn's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Fehn is a candidate for the countywide Kelley vacancy.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

What I've learned... or what I think I've learned... from the 2010 judicial campaign

Taking a Republican ballot on Groundhog's Day effectively deprives a voter of the opportunity to vote for judges in Cook County. There are only two Republicans who filed for any Cook County judicial vacancy (both in the countywide McCarthy vacancy, in case you want to look). That means, with that sole exception, the winners of the Democratic primary races on February 2 are effectively elected. (There are no Green candidates either.) I think that this situation strongly indicates the need to make judicial primaries non-partisan -- so that anyone voting in the primary can vote for any judicial candidate.

Voters who do take the time to investigate the credentials of Cook County judicial candidates will, on balance, be pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of the people offering to serve. In some races, voters may find it genuinely difficult to choose from among several good candidates. While this year, as always, there are some candidates who have shunned the bar evaluation process, the trend seems to be toward participation. That's a good thing.

Even in uncontested races, candidates have submitted to bar association screening. That hasn't always been the case: In prior elections, some candidates who knew they'd be uncontested didn't bother to seek evaluations. In three of the four uncontested judicial races this year, though, the candidates not only participated, they were found recommended or qualified by each of the investigating bar groups. These candidates are Daniel Gallagher in the Democratic primary for the McCarthy vacancy and Judges Thomas V. Lyons (countywide O'Malley vacancy) and Daniel J. Pierce (14th Subcircuit "A" vacancy). The fourth uncontested candidate, Bonita Coleman-John (1st Subcircuit "A" vacancy), also participated in the bar screening process and was found recommended by the Cook County Bar Association and the Black Women Lawyers Association of Greater Chicago.

This is the second time I've tried to cover a Cook County judicial primary on For What It's Worth. I undertook this project because I did not think that most Cook County Circuit Court candidates had the opportunity to get their messages out to the voters and most voters did not have anywhere to look for information about Cook County Circuit Court candidates as a whole.

This landscape has changed -- for the better -- since 2008. In 2008, there was IllinoisJudges.net and For What's It's Worth. We're both still at it this year. But there's a lot more available this time around. This year, the Tribune not only collected questionnaires from judicial candidates seeking the paper's endorsement, it published these online. And a new service, eVoter.com has sprung up this year. The site compiles a list of all the candidates in all the races. For a fee, candidates can post all their information right there on the eVoter sample ballot. In December, when I first wrote about it, only one Cook County judicial candidate had signed up for eVoter. By the time I finished compiling my Organizing the Data posts this weekend, several more candidates had jumped in. I wouldn't be surprised if more do between now and the primary next week. I'll predict right now that, if eVoter survives, most judicial candidates in 2012 will participate.

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Related posts:
Endorsements versus Evaluations
What Circuit Court race are you looking for?

See also:
Alliance of Bar Associations - updated grids
Chicago Bar Association 2010 Green Guide
Chicago Council of Lawyers Report on Judicial Candidates in the February 2, 2010 Primary

Sharon Finegan Patterson campaign video

Sharon Finegan Patterson is a candidate for the countywide Bronstein vacancy.

For more on Cook County Circuit Court elections, visit page one of For What It's Worth.

John Patrick Callahan, Jr. appearance on NTNM

John Patrick Callahan Jr.'s appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Callahan is a candidate for the countywide Kelley vacancy.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

Michael Ian Bender appearance on NTNM

Michael Ian Bender's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Bender is a candidate for the "A" vacancy in the 9th Judicial Subcircuit.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

Thomas David Bilyk appearance on NTNM

Thomas David Bilyk's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Bilyk is a candidate for the Riley vacancy in the 11th Judicial Subcircuit.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

Linda J. Pauel appearance on NTNM

Linda J. Pauel's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Pauel is a candidate for the countywide Dolan vacancy.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

Judge John Griffin on judicial elections

Judge John Griffin Explains Judicial Elections from Alan Cottrell on Vimeo.

My thanks to Mr. Cottrell for permission to post the video -- and to Judge Griffin for the plug he gave this blog in the course of his talk.

For more on Cook County judicial races, see page one of this blog.

Yehuda P. Lebovits appearance on NTNM

Yehuda P. Lebovits' appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Lebovitz is a candidate for the Otaka vacancy in Cook County's Ninth Judicial Subcircuit.

For more on Cook County judicial races, turn to Page One of this blog.

Abbey Fishman Romanek appearance on NTNM

Abbey Fishman Romanek's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Romanek is a candidate for the Otaka vacancy in Cook County's Ninth Judicial Subcircuit.

Judge Thomas V. Lyons appearance on NTNM

Judge Thomas V. Lyons' appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Judge Lyons is the only remaining candidate for the countywide O'Malley vacancy on the Cook County Circuit Court.

PCC NET TV interview of Wilson, Hooks & Gray

From PCC NET TV. I've figured out how to size YouTube videos to fit this page (mainly because it's not hard), but I'm afraid I was not able to figure out how to size this one.

Edmund Paul Michalowski appearance on NTNM

Edmund Paul Michalowski's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Micahlowski is a candidate for the countywide Riley vacancy on the Cook County Circuit Court.

Diann K. Marsalek appearance on NTNM

Diann K. Marsalek's appearance on North Town News Magazine is provided courtesy of Avy Meyers. Marsalek is a candidate for the countywide Bronstein vacancy on the Cook County Circuit Court.