Township organizations make endorsements in subcircuit races... and, then again, maybe not

Updated and corrected, January 31, 2010

I posted last night that the Democratic Party of Evanston endorsed Abbey Fishman Romanek for the Otaka vacancy and Steven James Bernstein for the "A" vacancy in Cook County's 9th Judicial Subcircuit. I linked to the organization website in support of that statement. As my math teachers always said: Show your work.

I opened up my email this morning and found several notes telling me to look again. "Take a closer look at the fine print," said one note.

Fine print on a sample ballot? That's like footnotes in a comic book -- theoretically possible but (one would suppose) entirely out of place.

And yet... squinting... there is a disclaimer in light gray type on the organization website at the bottom of the sample ballot page:

Candidates in bold face are in contested races and have been endorsed by the Democratic Party of Evanston, having received 2/3 or more of vote of participating members at the 2010 primary endorsement session held by the DPOE on December 13, 2009. All other candidates on this sample ballot are recommended by the Evanston Township Democratic Committeeman, State Senator Jeff Schoenberg.

A separate .pdf sample ballot (that I did not look at yesterday) has the same disclaimer at the top of the page, in blue.

So... if my middle-aged eyes are correctly distinguishing bold from regular type... Evanston Township has not endorsed any judges. I can see, though, where voters might not catch the distinction. Some of my emailers this morning alleged that this was precisely the intent. I offer no opinion on the topic -- but I do regret my initial misreading.

In the meantime, so far as I know, the Maine Township Democratic Organization has actually endorsed Steven James Bernstein for the 9th Subcircuit "A" vacancy and Dennis Michael Fleming for the Otaka vacancy.

The Maine Township group has also endorsed Steven J. Fruth in the crowded 11th Subcircuit field, as has the Democratic Party of Oak Park.