"For the second straight judicial primary election, less than half of the seats up for grabs March 17 drew more than one candidate, continuing a decadeslong slide in competition. ... Candidates in 16 of the 28 circuit court races are virtually assured to breeze onto the bench, where they could decide who goes to prison, holds a driver’s license, or keeps their kids. Some candidates on a glide path have liabilities that might hurt them in a contested race, including one with an arrest record, one with a history of failing to pay taxes, and one who only recently moved to Cook County."
The expertise of the people on the ballot isn’t the reason others choose not to run. It is the inherent corruption in which people are “appointed” to positions that are supposed to be left to voters, and court rulings that defy logic. (2025 McCombie vs. Ill Board of Elections)
Additionally, pointing to a survey where attorneys rank other attorneys that might end up presiding on their case does not seem entirely unbiased either. Disenfranchisement by republicans, or anyone having another voice, doesn’t matter.
Old Spartan
3 months ago
When you see in black and white how the Democrat Party controls the judicial races, you see just what a one party system does to a place. It is not only one party rule, but now it isn’t even three branches of government in Cook County any more.
Irish Patriot
3 months ago
All the judicial candidates are Democrats, with no Republicans on the list at all. The county Democratic Party slated only 5 of the 46 Democratic candidates, including just one white man in a county where the average lawyer is a white man over 50 years old. Running for judge as a white man in 2026 takes a lot of what Blagojevich would call testicular fortitude. The profession remains top-heavy with many white male “boomer”-aged lawyers, few of whom seem eager to retire, while fewer young lawyers are graduating law school overall and demographics skew heavily toward women (i.e. DePaul Law… Read more »
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
The expertise of the people on the ballot isn’t the reason others choose not to run. It is the inherent corruption in which people are “appointed” to positions that are supposed to be left to voters, and court rulings that defy logic. (2025 McCombie vs. Ill Board of Elections)
Additionally, pointing to a survey where attorneys rank other attorneys that might end up presiding on their case does not seem entirely unbiased either. Disenfranchisement by republicans, or anyone having another voice, doesn’t matter.
When you see in black and white how the Democrat Party controls the judicial races, you see just what a one party system does to a place. It is not only one party rule, but now it isn’t even three branches of government in Cook County any more.
All the judicial candidates are Democrats, with no Republicans on the list at all. The county Democratic Party slated only 5 of the 46 Democratic candidates, including just one white man in a county where the average lawyer is a white man over 50 years old. Running for judge as a white man in 2026 takes a lot of what Blagojevich would call testicular fortitude. The profession remains top-heavy with many white male “boomer”-aged lawyers, few of whom seem eager to retire, while fewer young lawyers are graduating law school overall and demographics skew heavily toward women (i.e. DePaul Law… Read more »