Five file for O'Brien vacancy

The other Cook County Circuit Court vacancy to draw five candidates is the O'Brien vacancy.

Cynthia Ramirez is the candidate slated by the Cook County Democratic Party for this vacancy. Yes, that is a link to her website in the preceding sentence; a link has also been added to the sidebar. (Campaign websites will seem to be sprout like dandelions in the spring on this blog in the coming days.)

Pamela McLean Meyerson has also filed for this vacancy. Meyerson also filed today for the Urso vacancy in the 11th Subcircuit. FWIW readers will recall that election laws changed this year to eliminate the tradition of judicial candidates filing for multiple vacancies and then withdrawing from all but one (see, Running for judge in Cook County just got more difficult). However, at least some respected election law specialists have opined that the following new provision of §7-12(9) of the Election Code, 10 ILCS 5/7-12(9), does allow a judicial candidate, like Meyerson, to file for one full circuit (countywide) vacancy and one subcircuit vacancy:

A candidate in a judicial election may file petitions for nomination for only one vacancy in a subcircuit and only one vacancy in a circuit in any one filing period, and if petitions for nomination have been filed for the same person for 2 or more vacancies in the same circuit or subcircuit in the same filing period, his or her name shall be certified only for the first vacancy for which the petitions for nomination were filed. If he fails to withdraw as a candidate for all but one of such offices within such time his name shall not be certified, nor printed on the primary ballot, for any office.

Interestingly, this provision does not appear to apply to candidates for the Illinois Appellate Court -- and a number of candidates for that court are testing this theory. This phenomenon will be addressed in future posts.

(I venture no opinion about the scope or application of §7-12(9).)

Gerald V. Cleary has also filed for the O'Brien vacancy. That's a link to his campaign website in the preceding sentence; a link has also been added to the sidebar.

An Illinois attorney since 1989, Cleary was formerly a partner with Smith Amundsen; he is presently a partner in the firm of Pappas, Cleary, O'Connor, Fildes, Secaras P.C. Cleary was a candidate for the Kowalski vacancy in the 10th Subcircuit in 2008; in that race, he ran as Gerald Patrick Cleary.

Frank James Ryan has also filed for the O'Brien vacancy. That's a link to his campaign website in the preceding sentence; a link has also been added to the sidebar.

Ryan was a candidate for the countywide Murphy vacancy in 2008. He also made a bid for the Lipinski vacancy in 2010.

Rounding out the field in this race is Peter Martin Kramer. I've so far been unable to locate a website for this candidate, but ARDC advises that he is an attorney in the Cook County Sheriff's Office and has been an Illinois attorney since 2002. Kramer sought the Carmody vacancy in the 3rd Subcircuit in 2010.

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Updated and corrected 11/28/11