Decalogue CLE offers hopeful sentiment: It's never too late for a pretrial settlement conference

The Decalogue Society of Lawyers will present a free CLE program entitled "It's Never Too Late For A Pretrial Settlement Conference, on Tuesday, May 19, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in Courtroom 1501 of the Richard J. Daley Center. A panel of veteran judges will offer advice and suggestions on how to best prepare for, and succeed at, a pretrial settlement conference.

The panel includes (in alphabetical order) Judge Frank Andreou, Judge Marie Dempsey, Judge Thomas V. Lyons II, and Judge Brendan O'Brien. Judge Alon Stein will moderate the discussion, as well as participate as a speaker, as is only appropriate, since the program is being held in his courtroom. Details about the event, and a QR code from which to register for the seminar, are included in the event poster, reproduced above. Registration may also be completed at this page of the Decalogue website.

Wake and funeral arrangements announced for former Appellate Court Justice Gino DiVito

Former Appellate Court Justice Gino DiVito will be waked next Thursday evening, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at Donnellan Family Funeral Services, 10045 Skokie Boulevard, in Skokie. The funeral Mass will be offered Friday, May 1, at 10:00 a.m., at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Glenview.

Justice DiVito stepped down from the Appellate Court in 1997, but continued to practice law for many years afterward. In later years, we were actually on opposite sides of an appeal (though there was no oral argument). On another occasion, DiVito attempted to mediate a convoluted coverage matter in which I was involved. It was a truly thankless task -- condominium cases can be quite bitter -- and a happy resolution was likely doomed from the outset because, pursuant to orders of court that I was unsuccessful in overturning, my carrier was effectively funding both sides of the litigation.

It is very difficult to persuade warring parties to make peace where the costs of their conflict are being picked up by others. In this, at least, what is true in global strategy is at least as true in the Circuit Court of Cook County. But I remember, and appreciate, Justice DiVito's efforts on that occasion.

Because he left the bench so long ago, it is quite likely that most FWIW readers would not have appeared before Justice DiVito in court. I did. One matter where I appeared in front of him comes immediately to mind. (He wrote the opinion ruling against me... but, then again, who didn't serve on the Appellate Court and rule against me at least once?) But my 'war stories' from that case don't really involve Justice DiVito. Therefore, having no really good anecdote of my own to share, let me instead refer the reader to the obituary posted on the Supreme Court's website and Justice DiVito's biography on his own firm's webste.

Requiescat in pace.

Dr. Klumpp: Analyzing the results of the March 2026 Cook County judicial primary (Part Two)

FWIW is once again pleased to present a Guest Post by Albert J. Klumpp, a PhD in public policy analysis with a national reputation for expertise on judicial races, the author of several scholarly works analyzing judicial elections, and a generous and frequent contributor to FWIW for many years.

This is Part Two of a two-part series; Part One appeared yesterday afternoon.

by Albert J. Klumpp

The small data set from the March 17 primary precludes any of the more advanced number-crunching that I’ve done for past primaries. But we can at least look at some scatterplots that give insight into the two countywide Circuit Court contests... and that explain how a slated candidate lost decisively.

Figure 2 shows vote percentages for Ashonta Rice, who won her two-candidate contest for the Coghlan vacancy with 60.4% of the vote. Each ward and township is represented by one dot, and the numbers on the horizontal axis represent the Black percentage of each place’s population. As we can see, even in places with very few Black voters, Rice came out slightly ahead. Specifically, in the 54 wards and townships that are 20 percent Black or less, the median vote for Rice was 53 percent. Which makes perfect sense, since Rice held the gender advantage, but was not the slated candidate. But as the plot shows, for the other 26 places with higher Black proportions, her vote percentage increased to as much as 77 percent. It went no higher, because some Black voters stuck with the party slate, but it was more than high enough.

Figure 3 shows her opponent Michael Cabonargi’s vote percentages based on percentage of white population. Cabonargi won in only 14 of the 80 wards and townships, and even in the most heavily white places his support rose no higher than 64 percent. The gender variable tends to be relatively strong in many white-majority areas, and party slating tends to be relatively less valuable in some white suburban townships, and both of those hurt Cabonargi. An Irish surname would have fared better -- in fact, Italian surnames have tended to fare slightly worse than average -- but that would not have made up anywhere near enough of the difference. And not having the first ballot position made his situation even worse.

Contrast the Coghlan contest with the 56.8% victory by Luz Maria Toledo in the contest for the Cobbs vacancy. Figure 4 shows Toledo’s vote percentages by percentage of Hispanic population. Note that there was no gender advantage to gain in this contest, since both candidates were female. And so, as the slated candidate, Toledo had an advantage that was not neutralized as Cabonargi’s was. As the plot shows, she won 72 of the 80 wards and townships, even many with little Hispanic population. So she did not need any name-based boost from Hispanic voters -- but she got it, with heavily Hispanic places giving her as much as 82 percent.

Figure 5 shows the vote for her opponent Linda Sackey based on Black population. Compare it to Figure 2. It shows that with a more generic name, Sackey did not attract the Black support that Rice did. In this contest, as in the other, the name game was decisive.

One final point to make about the Coghlan contest. Anyone who received the multiple mailings sent by the Cabonargi campaign might wonder about the impact of campaign activity. Through the first quarter of 2026 his campaign reported more than $240,000 in spending, the third-highest amount of any candidate (behind only two candidates in the typically big-spending 8th Subcircuit), and roughly $180,000 more than was reported by his opponent. But, as I explained in 2011 in a DePaul Law Review article, in countywide contests even a large spending advantage translates into only a very small shift in vote percentage. A campaign fund of this size would have had far more impact in a subcircuit contest, where money has a much more substantial impact. Possibly enough to be decisive. But here it was largely wasted.

*      *      *      *      *      *

Typically I end these FWIW posts with a qualifier about statistical estimates and margins of error. But with no statistical estimates to provide this year, I’ll instead mention once more the issue of the gradual decline in numbers of candidates seeking elective vacancies in Cook County. I dug into this trend in detail in a CBA Record article last year (available here), hoping to cast light on the situation. Because, obviously, an elective system cannot function without candidates.

Dr. Klumpp: Analyzing the results of the March 2026 Cook County judicial primary (Part One)

FWIW is once again pleased to present a Guest Post by Albert J. Klumpp, a PhD in public policy analysis with a national reputation for expertise on judicial races, the author of several scholarly works analyzing judicial elections, and a generous and frequent contributor to FWIW for many years.

This is Part One of a two-part series; Part Two will appear tomorrow morning.

by Albert J. Klumpp

Over the years it’s become a regular part of my elections research: sketching out for FWIW the important facts and figures from the judicial voting in our county’s primary and general elections. Unfortunately that task is becoming more and more difficult as time passes, because of the continuing decline in candidates seeking judicial vacancies.

Less competition means fewer votes to study and fewer valid conclusions that can be drawn. In particular, the kind of detailed statistical analysis that I’ve done in the past becomes unworkable due to insufficient data. And last month’s primary was the least competitive in several decades, with just 12 contests among 29 total judicial vacancies -- only two of those countywide -- and a total of only 46 candidates.

But if only by eyeballing and relying on past results for guidance, we can still get a basic picture of the March 17 results and what produced them.

First, voter turnout and participation. Total turnout for the primary was 24.9 percent. As Figure 1 shows, this does represent an uptick from the all-time low levels of the two previous primaries. However, those primaries had no significant contests at the top of the ballot to attract the attention of potential voters. This year there was a closely contested U.S. Senate race and several very competitive U.S. House races that all drew substantial campaign activity and media coverage. So it cannot be concluded that the uptick is the start of any larger trend of a rebound in voter turnout. At least not yet.

Participation in judicial voting by the voters who did turn out was high. The vast majority did complete the judicial part of the ballot. For instance, the two countywide contests saw votes from 84.3 percent of Democratic voters -- the second-highest total ever. But again, this cannot be seen by itself as anything meaningful, since there were so few contests on the ballot this year.

As for what influenced the choices made by those voters, several general statements can be made:

• The single most valuable attribute throughout our history of primaries has been gender -- a pro-female vote that has almost always produced an advantage per contest well into the teens percentage-wise. This year female candidates won in five of the seven contests between at least one female and one male, and the vote percentages of female candidates relative to their other attributes suggest a boost consistent with past years.


• In only five of the 12 contests was there a substantial difference between or among any of the candidates in ratings from bar associations and other non-party information sources. The higher-rated candidate, or one of the higher-rated candidates, won in all five instances. However, those candidates generally had other advantages as well, so while it’s likely that those sources were of some limited value, as is usual, it can’t be said for certain.


• Political endorsements in subcircuit contests produced mixed results. In some contests it seemed to be of some value, but in others it made little difference. Countywide, the Democratic Party’s slating appeared to provide its usual double-digit boost, despite one of the two slated candidates losing decisively (more on that to follow).


• Ballot position has historically been worth several percentage points, and this year 10 of the 12 contests were won by the candidate in the first ballot position. The two exceptions were lone females running against one or two males. While the size of this effect is not large, it turned out to be the deciding factor in both of the late-decided contests in Subcircuits 1 and 8. Both of those winners were in the first ballot position, and without that favorable lottery result neither would have won.


• Campaign spending was roughly on par with the three previous primaries this decade, continuing the trend of greater spending over the past several decades. But as this year’s numbers show, simply outspending opponents is no guarantee of success. Of the six candidates who have reported at least $100,000 in spending through the first quarter of the year, five of them lost.

Part Two of this article can be found by clicking here.

Jury Trial vs. Bench Trial vs. Court Annexed Arbitration: Zoom CLE promises tips from judges on how to succeed in each of these

The Decalogue Society of Lawyers is offering a lunchtime Zoom CLE on Thursday, April 30, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m., at which a panel of judges will discuss the different things that they want litigators to keep in mind when preparing for jury trials, bench trials, and court-annexed arbitration hearings.

Panelists include Judge Alon Stein, Judge Kerrie Maloney Laytin, Judge Perla Tirado, Judge Maria Barlow, and Judge Aileen Bhandari; Smith Spencer will serve as moderator.

Registration costs $25 (the program is free for Decalogue members), and can be accomplished from this page of the Decalague website.

Advocates offer CLE on equitable remedies in Chancery and other divisions, too

The Advocates Society will offer dinner and an hour and a half CLE program at their upcoming general meeting, Tuesday, May 5, starting at 6:30 p.m., at the Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence. The details and list of speakers is on the program flyer, reproduced above.

The cost (including dinner) is $30 ($20 for Advocates members). Sponsorships are also available, for $100, which also includes dinner and the CLE program. Tickets are available at this page of the Advocates website. The QR code on the poster might work as well; it's just that I never vouch for such things.

Sponsors assert that the program, entitled "Equitable Remedies in ACTION: From Chancery to Other Court Divisions," will, as the title suggests, be of interest to more practitioners than just those who frequent the Chancery courts.

Clerk announces Amnesty Week for traffic fines -- no amnesty or discount on filing fees, however

This notice was in several of my inboxes in the last few days, and I certainly hope that this effort by Circuit Court Clerk Mariyana T. Spyropoulos will rake in some overdue fines that might otherwise have gone uncollected. Lord knows, the County needs the money.

I only wish the Clerk would consider discounted filing fees for appearances, jury demands, and new case filings. It would have done me a lot of good when I was practicing, particularly when representing individuals (as opposed to large corporate clients) in smaller matters. No matter that I attached the receipts, or provided copies of the fee schedules: When the filing fees equal or exceed the lawyer's fee, a lot of clients become convinced that the lawyer is somehow double-dipping. Yes, I realize that much of our filing fee structure is statutory... and the Clerk has limited (if any) discretion in these matters... but still....

Judges and the occasional politician who pays attention to the civil courts may wonder sometimes where all the pro se litigants have come from in recent years. I don't wonder at all. I've just explained it to you.

Passing of retired Associate Judge Michael C. Brown

A reader advised FWIW that former Cook County Associate Judge Michael C. Brown passed away on April 9.

Judge Brown was assigned to both the Criminal Division and the Child Protection Division of the Circuit Court before retiring in 2013. He was a member of the "Harlan 8," one of eight Black judges that sat on the Cook County bench at the same time from a single Chicago public high school. It is believed that no other school in the country has produced that many Black judges sitting on the same court at the same time.

Brown was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Tributes to Judge Brown are posted on the Maywood Wheaton Alumni Chapter Kappa Alpha Psi Facebook and North Central Province Kappa Alpha Psi Instagram pages.

CBA Vanguard Award winners announced; tickets available for April 21 luncheon

The Chicago Bar Association will host the 2026 Vanguard Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, April 21, at the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson.

The luncheon will begin at noon, following an 11:30 a.m. reception.

Tickets are $75 each; tables of 10 are available for $750. Tickets are available at this page of the CBA website.

The CBA and an ever-increasing number of local bar groups present the Vanguard Awards each spring, honoring individuals and institutions who have made the law and legal profession more accessible to and reflective of the community at large. This year's honorees include a California Supreme Court justice, a judge of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, six Circuit Court judges, one retired Circuit Court judge, and one associate judge Short List hopeful. The list also includes the former Chicago Human Relations Commissioner. The complete list of Vanguard honorees (and the bar groups sponsoring each) is as follows:

• Advocates Society
  Judge Diann K. Marsalek


• Arab American Bar Association of Illinois
  Anthony (“Tony”) Michael Abou Ezzi


• Asian American Bar Association
  Ajay K. Mehrotra, Justice Goodwin H. Liu, and the American Bar Foundation
  for work on "Portrait Project 2.0: Asian Americans in the Legal Profession"


• Black Women Lawyers' Association of Greater Chicago, Inc.
  Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi


• Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago
  Daniel R. Murray


• Chicago Bar Association
  Judge Fredrick H. Bates


• Cook County Bar Association
  Cannon Lambert, Sr.


• Decalogue Society of Lawyers
  Judge Abbey Fishman Romanek


• Filipino American Lawyers Association
  Mark J. Calaguas


• Haitian American Lawyers Association
  Judie Lyn Smith


• Hellenic Bar Association of Illinois
  Judge Koula A. Fournier


• Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois
  Nancy Andrade


• Justinian Society of Lawyers
  Judge Jill Cerone-Marisie


• Korean American Bar Association
  Caroline K. Kwon


• LAGBAC -Chicago's LGBTQ+ Bar Association
  Judge Mary M. Rowland


• Muslim Bar Association of Chicago
  Naheda Zayyad-Hussien


• Puerto Rican Bar Association
  Judge Lucy Vazquez-Gonzalez


• South Asian Bar Association of Chicago
  Avani Patel


• Women's Bar Association of Illinois
  Judge Patrice M. Ball-Reed (ret.)

For a complete list of all past Vanguard Award winners, scroll down to the bottom of this page on the CBA website. There, you will find a link to a downloadable .pdf file showing all Vanguard winners dating back to 1998.

Shambley and Ori declared winners in close judicial races

The Chicago Board of Elections today announced the final results of balloting in the March 17 primary.

As FWIW readers will recall all too well, results in two City-only subcircuit races were too close to call on Election Night; the results depended on late-arriving Vote By Mail ballots and the adjudication of provisional ballots.

In the race for the Walker vacancy in the 1st Subcircuit, Ashley Greer Shambley (pictured above) is the declared winner, with 16,332 votes, besting her nearest challenger, Tiffany N. Brooks, by ony 70 votes.

Meanwhile, in the race for the Gamrath vacancy in the 8th Subcircuit, Kathleen Cunniff Ori (pictured at left) has been declared the winner over her nearest challenger, Elizabeth Christina Dibler, by 208 votes, 14,468 to 14,260.

For those of you keeping score at home, only a single vote was added to Brooks' totals since we last looked at that race. Shambley picked up no additional votes since that last look-in. (However, if you follow the links from that linked March 31 post, you will see that, quite a few votes were added for both candidates from and after Election Night; indeed, Shambley caught up to Brooks, and passed her, as the VBM ballots were counted.)

The 208 margin in Ori's favor also stayed the same since our March 31 article, with both Ori and Dibler picking up but a single vote in the meantime. In this race, however, the lead never changed hands, and the margin in Ori's favor moved only from 171 votes (on Election Night) to the 208-vote margin when the counting stopped.

Better buckle up: Barristers Big Band Benefit Ball battle set for April 24

Not a battle royale, but certainly a royal battle: The music of (as Stevie Wonder put it) the King of All, Sir Duke versus the music of the King of Swing, Chicago's very own Benny Goodman -- that's the theme of this year's CBA Barristers Big Band Benefit Ball, set for Friday April 24 at the Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd.

A reception opens the proceedings at 6:00 p.m.; dancing begins at 7:00. Tickets are $80 each. Free dance lessons will be offered. For fast learners, or old pros, there will be a dance contest. And everyone -- present or not -- has the opportunity to bid in a silent auction.

All proceeds of the event benefit the Chicago Bar Association's Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

The silent auction is open now, and new items will be posted for the auction until April 18. To place auction bids, visit app.betterunite.com/bbbbb2026. Event tickets are available from the auction page or at this page of the CBA website.

Did we say April 23? Why, yes, yes, we did -- but things have changed

The new date for the Illinois Latino Judges Association Spring Fling Social is April 30. This is the revised flyer for the event:

Still at Chief O'Neill's Pub, 3471 N. Elston Ave. Tickets and all the details for this event can be accessed through the QR code in the flyer above. Otherwise, seek out a member of the Illinois Latino Judges Association and negotiate with him or her.

Looking more closely at the 2026 Short List finalists - Part 2

In Part 2 of this two-part series, FWIW continues its look at each individual associate judge finalist. For Part 1 of this series, click here. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order. I will update this post as necessary.

Mona Naser is a partner with Carlson Dash, specializing in commercial litigation, real estate (commercial and residential), and general corporate law. She has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 2002, according to ARDC. (She is also licensed to practice in Wisconsin and Arizona.)

Naser is currently the Vice-President and Board Member of the Arab American Bar Association; she previously co-chaired the AABA's Judicial Evaluation Committee. A Past President of the Illinois Creditors Bar Association, and a past Co-Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women, Naser is also a Trustee of the State Employee Retirement Systems.

A graduate of Chicago Public Schools, Naser did her undergraduate work at the University of Illinois-Chicago before attending DePaul University Law School.

Ginger L. Odom is one of the two appointed judges to make this Short List. At the time of her appointment, in June of last year, Odom was working as the Director of the Expungement Unit in the Office of the State Appellate Defender. She has been licensed in Illinois since 2003, according to ARDC.

A profile of Odom on the Chicago-Kent Law School website (Odom is a 2003 graduate of that school) says that she was a "non-traditional student." She grew up in Texas and moved to New York to study dance and theater as soon as she was old enough, in the mid-1980s, when the city’s artists were caught in the throes of the AIDS epidemic. A single parent while attending law school, Odom waited tables and tended bar to pay her bills.

Odom has served on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice (where she has been a member of the Forms Committee) and as an adjunct professor of law at the DePaul University School of Law.

Nickolas G. Pappas is a sole practitioner with an office on South Michigan Avenue. He has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1995, according to ARDC.

Before attending law school, Pappas worked as an analyst at Montgomery Ward's corporate headquarters for a few years. He was the first in his family to graduate from college; his immigrant parents operated a restaurant that was open 22 hours a day, serving employees from O’Hare Airport and the surrounding warehouses.

After completing law school, Pappas went to work for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, serving there eight years before returning to the private sector, joining Querrey & Harrow Ltd. He left that position to care for his father in his father's last illness, thereafter setting up his current, solo practice. In his current role, Pappas has worked as a Special State's Attorney representing the Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services in Title IV-D cases. He was also general counsel for Lakeland Healthcare Group, LLC from December 2012 until April 2015.

Julia B. Ramirez is a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney. She has been licensed to practice in Illinois since 2008.

I spotted a post from the Illinois Latino Judges Association congratulating Ramirez for making the Short List (that's where I grabbed the head shot) but, as often happens with ASAs or assistant public defenders, there is not a lot on line for me to pull together anything but the most basic biographical post. This is one of those posts that is likely to be amended in the days to come.

Anthony Ruffin is a career Cook County Assistant Public Defender, practicing in the Child Protection Division, Juvenile Justice Division and Misdemeanor Trial Section until 2005. He moved to the Felony Trial Division and is currently assigned to the Multiple Defendant Unit. He has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1994, according to ARDC.

Ruffin has been a paralegal instructor at Northwestern College in Bridgeview, Illinois for 22 years, teaching legal research and writing, civil and business litigation for 22 years.

A college football player at Purdue, Ruffin attended law school at Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, Texas. He subsequently obtained an LLM in intellectual property in 1997 from what was then still the John Marshall Law School. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated.

Linda Sackey was appointed to the bench in late 2024 but was passed over by the Cook County Democratic Party at slating time. Sackey was admitted to practice in Illinois in 2006, according to ARDC. At the time of her appointment, she was serving as a Judicial Clerk to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis.

Sackey began her legal career as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She then worked as an associate at Mayer Brown LLP for five years. From 2013 to 2018 Sackey was an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Appeals Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. She joined Justice Theis's chambers in 2019. She also served as an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School in 2016.

Sackey has served as a member of the Board of Directors of both the Cook County Bar Association and the Appellate Lawyers Association.

Smith Spencer is an attorney with Michael D. Gallo & Associates, joining that office after serving for 17 years as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago, including a four-year stint as Supervising ACC of the Torts Division. She has been licensed in Illinois since 2003, according to ARDC.

Spencer began her legal career in Wisconsin, attending the University of Wisconsin for both undergraduate and law school, before working for the university's Office of Equity and Diversity as a civil rights investigator and attorney. She then served as counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, from 2001-2004, representing the State in daycare and rehabilitation facility licensing hearings and investigating Medicare fraud claims.

Spencer has volunteered with Cradles to Crayons and Autism Speaks. She has also been a volunteer mentor for the Girl Scouts of America Project Law Track.

Looking more closely at the 2026 Short List candidates - Part 1

Updated 4/2/26

This is Part 1 of a two-part look at the 14 associate judge finalists. For Part 2 of this series, click here. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order. I will update this post as necessary.

Matthew J. Canna is a partner with Costello Ginex & Wideikis, PC. He has been licensed in Illinois since 2003, according to ARDC. His firm biography highlights his experience in premises lability, trucking and automobile negligence, and construction negligence cases. He began his legal career with Hinshaw & Culbertson, and also worked as a plaintiff's attorney, according to the CGW bio, handling wrongful death, medical malpractice, and catastrophic personal injury claims.

A graduate of Marist High School, the University of Notre Dame (with a degree in mechanical engineering), and Chicago-Kent Law School, according to his firm bio, Canna has served on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Special Olympics.

Juanishá N. Dotson is an Assistant Public Defender, serving in the Felony Trial Division of that office; she has been licensed in Illinois since 2010, according to ARDC. Dotson notes that she has tried a hundred bench or jury cases to verdict in the course of her career. She told FWIW that she teaches trial practice and advocacy at Loyola University Chicago and coaches the Chicago Cup Competition and Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial Teams.

A native of Houston, Texas, Dotson did her undergraduate work at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and went to law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, before arriving in Chicago and setting up her own practice, doing a little bit of everything, including family law, personal injury, and wills and trusts. She currently serves serves on the Board of Managers for the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) and the Executive Board of Directors for Chicago’s LGBTQ+ Bar Association (LAGBAC). Dotson was recently appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court as a member of the Committee on Character and Fitness for the First District.

Caroline K. Kwon has been practicing in Child Protection Court for almost 30 years. She was a supervisor with the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office, representing children in the foster care system as their attorney and guardian ad litem. She joined the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office as a first chair in Child Protection Court in 2019. Kwon has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1996, according to ARDC.

Kwon is a former President of the Korean American Bar Association and currently serves as an Advisory Board Member. She is also a board member of the Asian American Bar Association Law Foundation which provides scholarships to law school students. Kwon is a former board member of Hanul Family Services which provides social services to older adults, immigrants and low income families.

Kwon did her undergraduate work at Loyola University Chicago. She is a graduate of the Universtiy of Illinois Chicago Law School.

Daniel T. Madigan is a partner with Napleton & Partners. He joined that firm in 1996, when it was known as Motherway & Napleton, after a three-year stint as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago. He has been licensed as an attorney in Illinois since 1993, according to ARDC.

Madigan also served as a prosecutor for the Village of Western Springs from 2012-2017 and has been a Commissioner for the Illinois Court of Claims since 2013.

Madigan attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for both his undergraduate and law degrees. He now serves on the University of Illinois College of Law’s Advisory Board and as an advisor for the Chicago Bar Association Moot Court Competition. He is a member of the ISBA Assembly.

Alexander D. Marks is a partner with the firm of Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C., concentrating in complex commercial litigation, while also chairing the firm’s pro bono committee. Marks is also an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association (panelist for Commercial Litigation, Consumer Disputes, and Labor and Employment). He has been licensed to practice law in Illinois since 2004, according to ARDC.

The current president of the Decalogue Society of Lawyers, Marks was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Professional Responsibility; he also serves on the Chicago Bar Foundation Pro Se Advisory Committee.

Marks obtained his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Illinois and has served on the Northbrook Youth Baseball Board of Directors. He has written a novella, "Little League, Big Lessons. Life Wisdom From A Summer of Youth Baseball" (although, as this post was prepared, it is not currently available on Amazon).

Tene McCoy Cummings has been a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney for over 23 years, currently serving as the Deputy Chief of the Special Victims Bureau in that office. Licensed as an attorney in Illinois since 1998, according to ARDC, McCoy Cummings began her legal career as a staff attorney for the United Auto Workers Legal Services Plan.

McCoy Cummings was a recipient of the 2026 C.F. Stradford Award in recognition of her work for domestic violence awareness. Throughout her career at the CCSAO, she has prosecuted hundreds of serious crimes, including murders, domestic violence cases, and sexual assaults.

McCoy Cummings also serves as the President of the Ability Alliance Network Employee Resource Group, an ISBA Assembly Member, and as a volunteer for Lawyers in the Classroom. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. McCoy Cummings attended Howard University for both her undergraduate and law degrees.

Gregory T. Mitchell practices with the Law Office of Gregory T. Mitchell, P.C. in Homewood, concentrating, according to his firm website, in federal criminal defense and employment law. He has been licensed to practice in Illinois since 1987, according to ARDC.

A Marine Corps veteran, Mitchell served as a personnel officer and, after completing law school (at the University of Illinois, in 1987), as a Staff Judge Advocate. He founded his current firm in 2000.

Mitchell obtained his undergraduate degree in 1980, from Drake University. He also holds a Master of Public Administration Degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, a degree conferred in 1984.

Starting to look at the Short List finalists

Friday's post about the announcement of the 14-person associate judge Short List cribbed rather extensively from the OCJ's press release.

But I omitted one detail, because I wanted to call particular attention to it: The press release noted that the new Nominating Committee interviewed 74 hopefuls. A total of 100 had applied for this class, but 26 withdrew before the interview stage.

That's a really small number of applicants. This is consistent with the small number of candidates who came forward for the recent primary (not even one Republican filed for any vacancy; four of the six countywide vacancies, including the only Appellate Court vacancy, were uncontested in the Democratic primary, as were 13 of the 23 subcircuit vacancies).

Although 100 is a very small number of applicants, there were only 81 who applied for the extremely small class of associate judges announced in 2024. By comparison, there were

• 212 applicants in March 2022,
• 246 in February 2021,
• 212 in September 2018,
• 272 in February 2017,
• "Over 270" applicants for the short list announced in March 2014,
• 239 applicants for the short list announced in March 2012, and
• 278 applicants for the short list announced in August 2009.

Is a judicial career becoming unattractive? I don't really think that is likely, but these numbers require at least considering the question. (And -- as long as we're asking questions -- if interest in judicial service really has waned among our brother and sister attorneys, why?)

In the next couple of days, I will put up individual profiles of each of the Short List hopefuls, but, before we get to that, it may be interesting to look at the group as a whole.

This 14-person group includes two persons who are already serving as judges. Ginger Odom was appointed to a 1st Subcircuit vacancy last year; Linda Sackey was appointed to a countywide vacancy in late 2024, but was passed over at slating time by the Cook County Democratic Party. Neither prevailed in their respective primary contests.

There are a group of know-it-alls (all named Anonymous) who assert that appointed judges who fall short at the polls are assured of 'rescue' in the associate judge selection process -- the politicians protect their own, and so forth.

Rubbish.

But Odom and Sackey do have one potential advantage over their fellow Short Listees: They have been 'on the job' for a while. They have had an opportunity to impress their fellow jurists with how they have conducted themselves 'in harness.' As former DePaul University Law School Dean Warren Wolfson, a former circuit and appellate judge, once stated, "Unless someone's been sitting as a judge, you don’t really know how they’re going to behave." Of course, if the Circuit Court of Cook County is no longer the largest county court, it is among the largest: Most of the judges who will vote for associate judge will not have firsthand knowledge of either candidate's conduct in office.

For years the belief was that making the Short List was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Persons who made the Short List, but who were not selected, seldom made it back to another Short List. Some recent Short Lists seemed to buck that trend (the 2023 list had a very large number of persons who'd made one or more prior Short Lists -- including one who'd last made it in 2012), but the current list seems to return to form: Of this year's hopefuls, only Anthony Ruffin was a prior Short List finalist -- and he was a finalist in 2023.

But while there are a lot of newcomers to the Short List, not everyone on this list is entirely unfamiliar to FWIW readers. In addition to Odom, Sackey, and Ruffin, Juanishá N. Dotson and Gregory Mitchell were alternates selected by the Cook County Democratic Party in 2025 for countywide vacancies that did not open (3rd and 6th alternates respectively). Another finalist, Nikolas G. Pappas, was a candidate for a 20th Subcircuit vacancy in 2024.

Checking back in on the two close subcircuit races: Shambley and Ori remain in front

It's just about time to wrap up this Election Fortnight, seeing as how the polls closed two weeks ago.

Official results will be posted a week from now, after Easter. But here is how things stood as of the Chicago Board of Elections' Monday, March 30 update in the close 1st and 8th Subcircuit races:

Ashley Greer Shambley now holds a 71 vote lead over Tiffany N. Brooks, 16,332 to 16,261, in the race for the Walker vacancy in the 1st Subcircuit. Shambley gained 68 votes since we last looked in; Brooks gained 53 votes.

Meanwhile, in the race for the 8th Subcircuit Gamrath vacancy, Kathleen Cunniff Ori now has a 208 vote margin over Elizabeth Christine Dibler, 14,467 to 14,259. Ori has been credited with 82 additional votes, Dibler with 81.

Short list is now out: 14 finalists named for seven vacancies

The Circuit Court of Cook County Chief Judge Charles S. Beach II and the court’s Nominating Committee today announced the names of 14 candidates who will appear on the ballot for election by circuit judges to fill seven associate judge vacancies.

“We are pleased to submit the names of these candidates for consideration to join the bench of the Circuit Court of Cook County,” Chief Judge Beach said, in a press release accompanying the release of the short list. “I am grateful for the hard work of the Nominating Committee in assembling this list of highly qualified candidates.”

The Court's press release stressed that it is currently operating with a shortage of judges, underscoring the importance of promptly filling these vacancies. To address that need, the Nominating Committee convened promptly after receiving bar association evaluations for applicants seeking to fill the seven pending associate judge vacancies.

The list includes a couple of sitting judges who did not fare well in the recent primary. Over the next several days, I'll prepare a couple of posts profiling the finalists, but, in the meantime, here is the list:

• Matthew J. Canna
• Juanishá N. Dotson
• Caroline K. Kwon
• Tene McCoy Cummings
• Daniel T. Madigan
• Alexander D. Marks
• Gregory T. Mitchell
• Mona Naser
• Ginger L. Odom
• Nickolas G. Pappas
• Julia B. Ramirez
• Anthony Ruffin
• Linda Sackey
• Smith Spencer

The 265 circuit judges of the Circuit Court of Cook County have the constitutional authority to fill associate judge vacancies using the procedures outlined in Illinois Supreme Court Rule 39. Under Rule 39, the Nominating Committee must select twice as many qualified candidates as there are vacancies to be filled. In this instance, 14 candidates were selected for seven vacancies.

The Chief Judge notifies the Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts of the candidates selected by the Committee and requests that the Director begin the balloting process.

Within 14 days after receiving that notification, the Director mails ballots listing all candidates to each circuit judge. Judges may vote for up to the number of vacancies and must return their ballots within 14 days.

The Director then counts the ballots, which are accompanied by a signed identification card, tabulates and certifies the results.

Bar evaluations for associate judge applicants were conducted by The Chicago Bar Association and the 13-member Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening, at the request of the Office of the Chief Judge.

The Alliance includes the Illinois State Bar Association and the following minority and specialty bar organizations: the Arab American Bar Association of Illinois, the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area, the Black Men Lawyers’ Association, the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, the Cook County Bar Association, the Decalogue Society of Lawyers, the Hellenic Bar Association of Illinois, the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, Chicago’s LGBTQ+ Bar Association (LAGBAC), the Puerto Rican Bar Association, and the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.

Each bar association independently evaluates and issues ratings for associate judge applicants. In the Court's press release today, Chief Judge Beach thanked The CBA and the Alliance for their work in evaluating the candidates.

During the coming weeks, candidates will present their credentials to circuit judges, including a short video, resumé, and one-page biography. Presiding Judges will also arrange video or in-person meetings to allow circuit judges to meet with each candidate.

This will be Chief Judge Beach's first class of associate judges. The Nominating Committee also has a number of new names. Serving on this Nominating Committee were:

• Honorable Charles S. Beach II
  Chief Judge


• Honorable Michael B. Barrett
  Deputy Chief Judge, Civil Operations


• Honorable Tommy Brewer
  Presiding Judge, Sixth Municipal District


• Honorable Neil H. Cohen
  Supervising Judge, Chancery Division


• Honorable Kent A. Delgado
  Deputy Presiding Judge, Probate Division


• Honorable Mary C. Marubio
  Deputy Chief Judge, First Appearance Court Operations;
  Presiding Judge, Second Municipal District


• Honorable Susana L. Ortiz
  Presiding Judge, Pretrial Division


• Honorable Erica L. Reddick
  Deputy Chief Judge, Criminal Operations;
  Presiding Judge, Criminal Division


• Honorable Athanasios S. Sianis
  Presiding Judge, First Municipal District


• Honorable Rena Marie Van Tine
  Appellate Court Justice


• Honorable Maureen Ward Kirby
  Presiding Judge, County Division

Aside to the Short List Finalists: If you send me your information (jackleyhane@yahoo.com), I will try and use as much of it as I can in the profile posts I mentioned above. Include a head shot, if you can, in .jpg or .png format, that I can crop to a square.

Election Fortnight update: Shambley, Ori remain ahead

Drop by drop, the election results continue to drip in....

As of the latest update (yesterday at noon), the Chicago Board of Elections reports that Ashley Greer Shambley now holds a 56 vote lead over Tiffany N. Brooks, 16,264 to 16,208, in the race for the Walker vacancy in the 1st Subcircuit. Since yesterday's update, that's seven new votes for Shambley, six for Brooks.

Drip, drip, drip...

Meanwhile, in the race for the 8th Subcircuit Gamrath vacancy, Kathleen Cunniff Ori now has a 207 vote margin over Elizabeth Christine Dibler, 14,385 to 14,178. That's 11 more votes for Ori since yesterday's update, six for Dibler.

Drip, drip, drip...

It is not the CBOE's fault that these results are accreting like stalagmites on a cave floor; I have not heard even the slightest whisper of impropriety from any of the affected candidates -- and I am certain that they are carefully monitoring the CBOE's process. Rather, it is the statutory scheme which permits this long, drawn-out counting business. This could -- and should -- be fixed.

ILJA to hold Spring Fling April 23

At Chief O'Neill's Pub, 3471 N. Elston Ave.

I was going to say I'd actually been there... but the website says it's only been open since 1999, so probably not.... There was definitely another Irish pub in that area back in the days when I did frequent such establishments, but I guess I don't remember the name.

Anyway, tickets and all the details are available through the miracle of that QR code in the flyer above. Otherwise, seek out a member of the Illinois Latino Judges Association and negotiate with him or her.

Shambley currently leads in 1st Subcircuit race, Ori lead holding in the 8th Subcircuit

Ashley Greer Shambley has nosed ahead of Tiffany N. Brooks in the latest update in the race for the 1st Subcircuit Walker vacancy, according to the most recent figures released by the Chicago Board of Elections.

The lead is only 55 votes, 16,257 for Shambley to 16,202 for Brooks. These figures were last updated at noon yesterday (Sunday, March 22). On Election Night, Brooks had a nearly 400 vote lead over Shambley, but the lead had narrowed to only 304 votes in the update published here Friday.

Meanwhile, in the race for the Gamrath vacancy in the 8th Subcircuit, Kathleen Cunniff Ori's lead over Elizabeth Christina Dibler now stands at 202 votes, 14,374 to 14,172.

In Friday's update, Brooks had 15,829 votes to Shambley's 15,525. Shambley gained 732 votes over the weekend, while Brooks' total increased by only 373.

In the 8th Subcircuit, Ori's Election Night lead over Dibler was 12,649 to 12,478. Ori has gained 1,725 votes since (a gain of 1,291 from Friday's update) while Dibler is up 1,694 votes since I surrendered myself to the arms of Morpheus last Tuesday night.

The CBOE says that there may be daily updates in these totals through March 31.

Both of these races had three contestants. Falling victim to the horse race mentality which pollutes election reporting, I have focused here only on the top two finishers. But I am certain that the third-place finishers in both races have also gained votes as VBM ballots are counted.

And that's the policy question that transcends the outcome of these two races: In these races VBM is clearly a significant percentage of the overall vote. Why is that a good thing? I understand completely that VBM may be necessary for persons afflicted by age or illness... but should we be making this an attractive, viable option for healthy people who could easily get to the polls (or vote early in person)? And, if we the people really want VBM, why the heck can't we insist that all VBM ballots must be postmarked a week before Election Day, so that we don't have these dribble-drabble vote counts in close races?

Obviously, these drawn-out elections are torture for the candidates involved -- but is there some benefit to the public that justifies their discomfiture? What benefit does the public receive from election 'nights' that turn into election fortnights?

I'll hang up now and listen for your answers.

Advocates offer April 7 CLE on practice before the Appellate and Supreme Courts

The Advocates Society will offer dinner and an hour and a half CLE program at their upcoming general meeting, Tuesday, April 7, starting at 6:30 p.m., at the Copernicus Center, 5216 W. Lawrence. The details and list of speakers is on the program flyer, reproduced above.

The cost (including dinner) is $30 ($20 for Advocates members). Sponsorships are also available, for $100, which also includes dinner and the CLE program. Tickets are available at this page of the Advocates website.

The CLE program, "Do's and Don'ts When Practicing Before the Illinois Supreme and Appellate Court" will cover topics like:

• Making your record,


• Writing effective briefs, and


• Best practices for oral arguments before the Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court.

Not specified among the topics -- so I am not stealing the thunder of any of the august jurists who will hold forth on April 7 -- is the case I stumbled across while doomscrolling on X recently: It seems a prosecutor in a Georgia case submitted a proposed order that included AI-generated hallucinations... and the judge signed the order... and then, on appeal, after those illusory citations were revealed as such, the prosecutor tried to argue that the trial court had added them. Here's my pro tip -- which I now offer free, gratis, and for nothing -- (1) don't use AI-generated hallucinated citations in your briefs or other court filings, but (2) if you by some chance do use such citations, through inadvertance, inattention, or anything else, don't try to blame the trial court for your mistake!

Updating the close contests in the 1st and 8th Subcircuits

The curtains in the old Chicago voting machines didn't go all the way to the floor, and the only-partially-screened voter might have to shuffle his or her feet a bit in order to pull the levers for particular candidates -- something unnecessary if one merely voted the straight ticket -- thus the ancient precinct captain's harsh indictment: I seen you dancin' in dere.

In those innocent days, in close statewide elections, people would stay up late, glued to their TVs, waiting to see how long it would take for the river wards (in Chicago) or DuPage County (in those days as fervently Republican as Chicago is, and was, Democratic) to 'release' their votes -- which some people (bitter, cynical people) interpreted as the respective camps calculating how many votes either side needed to invent to achieve their desired result -- but, at some point, late that night, or in the wee small hours of the morning, even the close contests would be decided.

No longer.

Some diabolical genius 'improved' things with Votes By Mail.

Now, in a close race, we have to wait days, or a week or more, to ascertain the true will of the people.

We have two close races in contested Cook County judicial primary contests this year, one in the 1st Subcircuit (the Walker vacancy), and one in the 8th Subcircuit (the Gamrath vacancy).

The Chicago Board of Elections says, as of this morning, there are 69,731 outstanding ballots -- but that number is misleadingly high.

There are 2,383 uncounted provisional ballots and 13,187 VBM ballots that have been returned and not yet counted. This leaves 54,161 VBM ballots sent but not yet returned to the CBOE.

As a practical matter, a lot of those aren't going to be returned. Some of those that may be returned in the coming days will be postmarked after March 17 and should not be counted for that reason.

Some of the outstanding, uncounted provisional ballots might be counted, if they turn out to be valid, in the 1st or 8th Subcircuits. Ditto for some of the 13,187 VBM ballots now on hand. But we don't know which ones are which.

What we do know this morning is this: After additional votes were counted yesterday, Tiffany N. Brooks still leads in the 1st Subcircuit Walker race, but now by only 304 votes over Ashley Greer Shambley, 15,829 to 15,525. Her margin has shrunk by 90 votes.

Kathleen Cunniff Ori's lead over Elizabeth Christina Dibler in the 8th Subcircuit Gamrath race has shrunk by 30 votes. The tally now is 13,083 to 12,955.

But there will be more votes to count in both races. In an email to FWIW, Max Bever, the CBOE's Director of Public Information, said, "The Uncounted Vote By Mail and Provisional Ballots will be reported by this evening and be added to the unofficial results daily through March 31."

In other words, it's going to be a while.

If any of you should run across Ms. Brooks, Ms. Greer Shambley, Ms. Ori, or Ms. Dibler today, or anytime in the near future, be nice. Make allowances. And if you should find the person responsible for Votes By Mail, throw a clod of earth at that person for me.

Checking in on the cliffhangers in the 1st and 8th Subcircuits

Tiffany N. Brooks has a 394 vote margin over Ashley Greer Shambley this morning in the very close race for the Walker vacancy in the 1st Subcircuit, according to the Chicago Board of Elections website. The website says 147 of the subcircuit's 147 precincts have reported -- but there may yet be vote by mail ballots not yet counted or even received. I've reached out to the CBOE for information on that front, and will update when I can.

The margin in the race for the Gamrath vacancy in the 8th Subcircuit is even smaller, with Kathleen Cunniff Ori holding on to a 158 vote lead over Elizabeth Christina Dibler, also with 100% of the subcircuit's 135 precincts reporting, but also subject to revision, up or down, as VBM ballots are counted. I have asked the CBOE for any updates that may be available on this race as well.

Longtime FWIW readers have been down this road before: Sometimes leads hold; sometimes they don't. It's a stressful time for the candidates, but I have reached out to three of the four (the ones for whom I have apparently reliable emails) and I will continue to update this story as necessary.

Ashonta C. Rice wins countywide race - and other results in contested Cook County judicial races

Ashonta C. Rice won a countywide judicial vacancy handily this evening, besting the Democratic Party's officially slated candidate, Judge Michael Cabonargi, by more than 100,000 votes in combined City and suburban returns.

On the other hand, in the other contested countywide Circuit Court race, the Democratic Party's chosen candidate, Luz Maria Toledo, was the clear winner over Judge Linda Sackey, by a margin of over 70,000 votes.

What's the headline? It was a bad night to be an appointed judge?

Maybe... Judge Ginger Odom trailed the field in the race for the 1st Subcircuit Walker vacancy, a race in which Tiffany N. Brooks holds only about a 400 vote margin over Ashley Greer Shambley, with 98.64% of the vote reported. Shambley and Odom had stellar bar ratings; Brooks did not participate in the screening process. The final outcome of this race may not be known for some time.

On the other hand, Judge Lester Finkle is apparent winner in the race for the Mikva vacancy in the City-only 8th Subcircuit.

In other contested judicial races, Monica Somerville's strong showing in the suburbs has propelled her to victory in the race for the Kane vacancy in the 19th Subcircuit (the City votes in this race were much more evenly distributed among Somerville and her two opponents). Jon Stromsta had an almost 7,000 vote margin over his opponent in the race for the Miller vacancy in the 20th Subcircuit.

Bianca B. Brown emerged victorious in her race for the Carroll vacancy in the 17th Subcircuit; Natalia Moore was the clear winner in the race for the Brooks vacancy in the 17th Subcircuit.

Jarrett Knox won his race for the McLean Meyerson vacancy in the 11th Subcircuit. Rachel Marello won her 3rd Subcircuit race (Sherlock vacancy). Radiance Ward was the clear victor in the race for the Balanoff vacancy in the 1st Subcircuit.

One other race appears to be too close to call at this hour: With just over 97% of the precincts reporting, Kathleen Cunniff Ori has a razor-thin 171-vote margin over Elizabeth Christina Dibler, 12,649 to 12,478, in the race for the Gamrath vacancy in the City-only 8th Subcircuit.

Start here for the most complete information about every 2026 Cook County judicial race

This post will get bumped up to the top of the front page of FWIW frequently in the days leading up to the March 17 priamry.

This is the interactive, voter-friendly part of FWIW. What follows is a list of every Cook County judicial vacancy on the March primary ballot.

The vacancies are listed on Democratic and Republican ballots alike.

However, the only candidates for any of these judicial vacancies on this year's ballot are in the Democratic primary. No candidates filed to run in the Republican Primary.

The following is not a partisan statement; it is merely a statement of fact: In the March 17 primary, in order to have any say in who serves in our local courts, one has to take a Democratic ballot.

Voters in the Democratic Primary may be additionally surprised to note how many judicial vacancies are uncontested.

Essentially, all of the persons running in uncontested races are as good as elected already.

Of course, not all races are uncontested. These are the ones voters should be looking for. All the contested races in the list below are live links. When you click on any of these, you will be taken to a post that will show all the candidates in that race, in ballot order, with all ratings and other information about each candidate that I've been able to assemble. Where a candidate has provided FWIW with a statement "in their own words", a link to that statement will be available from that post as well.

There is a link at the bottom of each of these Organizing the Data posts, so voters can examine each contested race in detail, one candidate at a time, and come right back here.

The linked posts will be updated as new information becomes available, right up until the polls close on the Feast of St. Patrick. Any errors of omission or commission in these posts are mine alone and deeply regretted.

What is not an error: You will note, if you visit the candidates' websites (and I encourage you to do this; that's why I include them) that the candidate may claim a number of endorsements that I don't include in the Organizing the Data posts. I only include endorsements that I can independently verify; the fact that, in some cases, a candidate will claim endorsements that I don't list does not necessarily mean that the candidate has inaccurately claimed an endorsement. Rather, it may mean (and usually means) only that I haven't (or haven't yet) confirmed a particular endorsement. You can read all FWIW posts about Cook County judicial candidate endorsements by clicking on this link. In the coming days, as I verify additional endorsements, I will add them to the proper Organizing the Data post at my earliest opportunity.

And now the list:

Countywide Vacancies

Appellate Court (Hoffman) - Uncontested

Circuit Court (Burke) - Uncontested
Circuit Court (Cobbs)
Circuit Court (Coghlan)
Circuit Court (Hooks) - Uncontested
Circuit Court (Karkula) - Uncontested

Subcircuit Vacancies

1st Subcircuit (Balanoff)
1st Subcircuit (Walker)

3rd Subcircuit (Murphy) - Uncontested
3rd Subcircuit (Sherlock)

5th Subcircuit (Ross) - Uncontested

8th Subcircuit (Gamrath)
8th Subcircuit (Mikva)

11th Subcircuit (McLean Meyerson)
11th Subcircuit (Roberts) - Uncontested

13th Subcircuit (Curry, Jr.) - Uncontested
13th Subcircuit (M. Kelley) - Uncontested
13th Subcircuit (T. Kelley) - Uncontested
13th Subcircuit (O'Malley) - Uncontested

16th Subcircuit (Baird) - Uncontested
16th Subcircuit (Mendoza) - Uncontested

17th Subcircuit (Brooks)
17th Subcircuit (Carroll)

18th Subcircuit (Andreou) - Uncontested
18th Subcircuit (Chrones) - Uncontested

19th Subcircuit (Fairman) - Uncontested
19th Subcircuit (Kane)

20th Subcircuit (Haracz) - Uncontested
20th Subcircuit (Miller)

We must be on the eve of a whole new era of bipartisan cooperation - or - Why I hate politics part 6,240

I moderate comments here on FWIW. That means, when a person stumbles across an article here, and is roused to new heights of partisan fury, or tries to insert a spam link for fake designer handbags, or both, the comment typed out by said person goes into a queue. Periodically, I will look at the comments that have accumulated in the queue, passing some through, but spiking others. Most comments, published or not, are made anonymously.

Ordinarily, since I am a very delicate person by nature, and a practicing coward besides, I 'flush' quite a few comments, including (I hope) all the overtly libelous ones. There's a lot of anonymous anger online.

During election season, I tend to ease up a little, letting some comments slip by that I ordinarily would not. But, not too long ago, I drew the line at one comment -- it was harshly critical of a judicial candidate, but then morphed into an accusation that Cook County Board President (and Cook County Democratic Party Chair) Toni Preckwinkle 'needs to go' because she panders to Trump.

Whatever one's view of President Preckwinkle, I thought the accusation was ridiculous. Surely, no Democratic politician, and certainly not the chair of the local Democratic Party, could possibly be a Trump fan. Right?

And then... then I started noticing something... a pattern in the parade of political commericials vomited across my television screen every evening. Have you noticed it also?

Superficially, every candidate, for every office, is running against Trump. A host of congressional candidates want to go to Washington to fight Trump. But it's not just those running for the House or Senate -- candidates seeking employment in Springfield plan to fight Trump there. Trump seemingly lurks around every corner, in the shadows of every lamppost; he's skulking in the gangway, hiding under your bed. For an old guy, he sure gets around. But -- never fear! -- every candidate promises to fight him, wherever he may be found.

Except... all these candidates running commercials... they all have opponents (otherwise, they wouldn't need to be spending money on TV commercials)... and all these opposing candidates say those Trump-fighting-stalwarts are really secret allies of Trump: They're taking money from ICE contractors; they're funded by MAGA supporters and Trump donors. Well, the candidates thus accused don't take these slanders lying down; they, or their absolutely-not-coordinating PAC backers run new commercials saying it's really the other guys who are taking money from ICE contractors, etc.

Trump isn't paying attention to Illinois these days; he long ago dismissed us a 'blue state pesthole' (OK, yes, I cleaned that one up -- I told you I was delicate). But maybe Trump should reconsider: Apparently, no matter who's elected, even if they promised, in their own commercials, to put horseshoes in their boxing gloves, they're really just hankering to be Trump's buddies. We must be on the verge of a new Era of Good Feelings, one our country has not experienced since James Monroe was in the White House -- lifelong hyper-partisan Democrats are all just looking to get elected on false pretenses, whereupon they will throw off their disguises, and show their true MAGA devotion.

What a load of road apples.

And yet... that's what the poltical commercials insist.

Do the politicians... and their consultants... really think we are this stupid?

No wonder voter participation keeps going down.

Tomorrow is Election Day. It's too late to get better candidates... or better commercials. But maybe it's time for people to take back the political process from those who think we're all idiots.

Chicago Laborers District Council (LiUNA!) offers endorsements in contested Cook County judicial elections

The Chicago Laborers District Council (LiUNA!) has offered a number of endorsements for next week's primary. The complete list of endorsements can be found at this link.

In contested Cook County judicial elections, LiUNA! has endorsed the following:

Countywide Vacancies

Cobbs Vacancy - Luz Maria Toledo
Coughlin Vacancy - Michael Cabonargi

Subcircuit Vacancies

1st Subcircuit (Balanoff) - Natalie Howse
1st Subcircuit (Walker) - Ashley Greer Shambley

8th Subcircuit (Gamrath) - Garson Fischer
8th Subcircuit (Mikva) - Katherine C. Morrison

11th Subcircuit (McLean Meyerson) - John Carrozza

17th Subcircuit (Brooks) - Meridth Hammer
17th Subcircuit (Carroll) - André Thapedi

19th Subcircuit (Kane) - John Harkins

20th Subcircuit (Miller) - Jon Stromsta

All relevant Organizing the Data posts will be updated as soon as possible.

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For further reading: "Start here for the most complete information about every 2026 Cook County judicial race"