Chicken or egg: Coverage of judicial campaigns in the Chicago daily papers and lack of voter knowledge about judicial races

I pay a lot of money to Thomson West each month for Westlaw. Westlaw is the modern equivalent of a law library; case law and other information from around the world can be downloaded to the subscribing lawyer's computer.

My Westlaw plan includes a subscription to a database called Illinois Newspapers; as the name suggests, it covers the major newspapers from across the State including, of course, the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times. It also includes the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

I relied heavily on searches of the Illinois Newspapers database in putting together the stories I did here in October and November about persons filing for Cook County judicial office.

I went into Westlaw this morning to confirm my suspicion that there has been no meaningful coverage of the upcoming judicial primary in either the Tribune or the Sun-Times.

I searched the Westlaw Illinois Newspapers database using this search query: "judge [or] judicial /2 candidate & cook /2 county & DA(AFT 9/30/2007)."

Westlaw users will recognize the syntax: I asked the database to retrieve every article published after September 30, 2007 in which the words "judge" or "judicial" were used, as long as those words were two words or less away from the word "candidate," and in which the words "cook" and "county" were used within two words of each other.

This search yielded seven results, but John Flynn Rooney's November 15 story for the Law Bulletin was returned twice. (I cited that story several times in posts on this blog.) A November 16 Law Bulletin story by Jerry Crimmins quoted Seventh Circuit Judge William J. Bauer's speech to the Fort Dearborn-Chicago Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution praising the efforts of bar associations that screen judicial candidates in Cook County. A third Law Bulletin story, by Brian Mackey, used these words in a story about the settlement of Justice Thomas' libel suit. A fourth entry from the Law Bulletin was a letter to the editor about judges residing in the subcircuits that elect them.

The Tribune did appear in these search results -- but only in two versions of an October 6 editorial praising Jerald Solovy on the occasion of his becoming Chairman Emeritus of Jenner & Block LLP.

Of course, search results are dependent on the words used in the search argument. So I tried a different one: "judge [or] judicial /10 February /5 primary & Cook /2 County & DA(AFT 9/30/2007)." This search, however, yielded only Rooney's November 15 Law Bulletin article.

I tried a different approach, looking to pick up any reference to this blog, candidate blogs, or other Internet coverage of our judicial races: "candidate [or] election & blog & DA(AFT 9/30/2007)." This yielded 113 results... mostly about Iowa or New Hampshire. I tried to narrow the search: "candidate [or] election & jud! & blog & DA(AFT 9/30/2007)." "Jud!" is a "wildcard" character, meant to snare either "judge" or "judicial" or any similar word beginning with the letters "jud." In the 18 results that came back, there were multiple mentions of Judy Baar Topinka.

I tried again: "candidate [or] election & judge [or] judicial & blog & DA(AFT 9/30/2007)." Judy Baar Topinka was gone now, and in the 13 remaining results were four versions of a story about a Radio Iowa reporter (the phrase "election judge" was what snared these into the search results), an article by Seventh Circuit Judge (and blogger) Richard Posner for the Sun-Times about the politics of college faculties, and another about a blogger who attends sci-fi conventions dressed as a Klingon. (The costumed blogger is not a judicial candidate, but he did not want to be 'judged' according to his costume alone.)

I do not assert that these searches have proved that neither the Sun-Times nor the Tribune have made any mention of judicial candidates in the upcoming primary. I recall reading -- a few days after I did a post about it -- a small article in the Sun-Times referring to 1st Subcircuit Judge Laguina Clay-Clark's fundraiser featuring appearances by several members of the 1985 Super Bowl Bears squad. (I felt quite smug, for a moment anyway, having arguably scooped a major metropolitan daily newspaper.)

But I can say now with confidence, backed by at least some research, that the Chicago newspapers have essentially ignored the judicial primary races so far.

I will not "call out" the various persons at the Sun-Times and Tribune to whom I've sent information about this blog and about the statements that candidates are providing "in their own words." These papers may even now be preparing articles about Cook County judicial candidates. Articles now would not be too late; it is probably correct to assume that most voters are only now beginning to turn their attention to the upcoming primary.

My point is, however, that many (and I dare say most) Cook County judicial candidates are trying hard to reach the voters. I don't suggest that the news holes of the Chicago dailies should be filled exclusively by stories about the latest sign stealing controversy in the Nth Subcircuit -- but couldn't some of the endless analysis of Hillary's tears be sacrificed in favor of basic information about the careers and qualifications of the men and women who will be elected this year to the Cook County bench? Candidates submit packages of information to the newspapers hoping for endorsements (the newspapers have questionnaires like every other group). There is a lot of information available about most candidates just from searching the Internet and old newspaper files. One news story about each contest shouldn't be too much to ask, should it?

As it stands now, if the papers editorialize this year that citizens did not know about the judicial candidates for whom they were voting, they had better also admit their critical role in fostering that ignorance.