Monday, December 07, 2015

Brian O'Hara withdraws from 7th Subcircuit race; objection filing now underway

River Forest practitioner Brian O'Hara had to choose between staying in the very crowded race for the Rivkin-Carothers vacancy in the 7th Subcircuit or the countywide Karzenis vacancy.

He has today advised the Illinois State Board of Elections that he is withdrawing from the 7th Subcircuit race.

There are three other candidates in the race for the Karzenis vacancy besides O'Hara. Judge Devlin J. Schoop holds the seat pursuant to Supreme Court appointment and is the Democratic Party's slated candidate in this race. Tom Courtney and Mary Kathleen McHugh are also candidates for this vacancy. Courtney, who practices in Palos Heights, filed for the Illinois Supreme Court and an Illinois Appellate Court vacancy in 2012, but withdrew from both races. McHugh has been licensed in Illinois since 1993 and is currently practicing with Parrillo Weiss LLC.

Oak Lawn personal injury attorney William S. Wojcik has drawn a challenge to the nominating petitions he filed in the race for the countywide Ruscitti Grussel vacancy. Judge Daniel Patrick Duffy holds this seat pursuant to Supreme Court appointment; Duffy is also the Democratic Party's slated candidate in this race. Other candidates for the Ruscitti Grussel vacancy are Loop PI attorney John E. Marszalek and Monica M. Torres Linares.

Maureen O'Donoghue Hannon may be unopposed in her bid for the countywide O'Brien vacancy, but a challenge has been filed to her nominating petitions as well. Hannon is the slated candidate and presumably had the benefit of experienced political operatives in preparing and filing her petitions; it will be interesting to see how this challenge fares.

There are -- if history is any guide -- quite a number of petition challenges still to come. FWIW will attempt to keep up with the filings as work requirements permit.

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