Countywide races -- Thomas vacancy -- and a word about sources and how candidates can tell their own stories

In part one of this look at the current status of the countywide judicial races in Cook County, we covered the Disko and Glowacki vacancies. In part two, we looked at the Healy, Keehan, and Lott vacancies. In part three, we looked at the Montelione, Murphy, and Nowicki vacancies. That leaves only the Thomas vacancy.

Thomas Vacancy

E. Madeline O'Neill has been an attorney since 1980, and, according to ARDC, was recently employed by the Chief Judge's Office at the Cook County Juvenile Courthouse. As Eleesha Madeline O'Neill, O'Neill ran for judge in the 6th Subcircuit in 1994 and filed again in 2006. She would have faced off against Gloria Chevere in the race for the "A" vacancy, but was not on the primary ballot. I wrote about O'Neill in this earlier post because O'Neill also filed, initially, for the 6th Subcircuit vacancy. In response to that post, I received this comment from "fedup dem": "For the record, O'Neill is one of 14 Hearing Officers who were 'rewarded' in March for years of dedication and hard work in reducing the backlog of cases in the Child Abuse and Neglect Division of Juvenile Court by being fired in the round of layoffs." I don't pretend to vouch for the information provided by "fedup dem," but I repeat it here in the expectation that it will promptly be contradicted if untrue.

Joan Powell is the slated candidate of the Democratic Party for this vacancy; she has also been endorsed for this vacancy by the Chicago Federation of Labor. She was appointed to this vacancy by the Illinois Supreme Court. Abdon M. Pallasch's September 17 Chicago Sun-Times article about this year's slating noted that Powell is the "wife of Democratic political strategist Phil Krone." Before going on the bench, Powell was an Assistant State's Attorney.

David John Mulvihill (Objection Pending) is a senior attorney in the Legal Department of the LaSalle Bank Corporation. He's been an attorney since 2000.

Patrick Dennis Riley (Objection Pending) ran for the Saylers vacancy in 2004. A lawyer since 1988, Riley is a solo practitioner with offices downtown.

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This concludes our sketches of the countywide judicial candidates in Cook County.

In putting these sketches together, I've used the "Illinois Newspaper" database in Westlaw, the ARDC website, the State Board of Elections website, Sullivan's Law Directory, and Yahoo! and Google searches. Candidate websites, where known, were consulted. In a few cases, candidates sent information to me. Some of these pieces are longer and more detailed than others. Some candidates, because of the jobs they have held, have had more public exposure: Thus, more information is available. However, that more is known about Candidate A than Candidate B does not automatically mean that Candidate A would make a better judge.

This is one of the reasons why I've offered every judicial candidate in Cook County the opportunity to state their own case for election -- to place before the voters their own credentials, in their own way, and in their own words. That link will take you to my offer. Since I first made the offer, some candidates have indicated concern about the suggested 500-word limit: Let me state again that I'll run what the candidate asks... but I suggest that anything too far in excess of 500 words will look too long on this narrow page and may turn off prospective voters who may "comparison shop" among candidates. I'll run the candidates' statements upon receipt.

A couple of weeks before the primary, I'll set up posts in ballot order.

Any candidate who has submitted a post 'in their own words' will find their name linked to that post. Thus, a voter can click back and forth from the 'sample ballot' to the candidates' own statement... and make informed decisions about judges in Cook County on February 5, 2008.