Are you running for judge? Well, the Alliance is chasing after you....

At this point, many, if not most, of the known 2016 judicial candidates have bar ratings. A lot of these have run before; most have also applied for Associate Judge. But there are, as there always are, first-time judicial candidates frantically circulating petitions now (hopefully taking advantage of the unusually good weather we're enjoying) who have never been screened by any of the evaluating bar associations.

It is to these still-unknown candidates that this post is directed.

Bar evaluations (these are not endorsements, mind you) come from two principal sources in Cook County, the Chicago Bar Association and the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening (11 bar groups who pool their resources to provide candidate evaluations).

Joyce Williams, the Alliance Administrator, has written in to ask me to remind candidates who have not yet been screened to contact the Alliance to begin the process. She writes, "With two Appellate Court vacancies and 26 (for now) full and subcircuit vacancies, I expect a great deal of 'traffic'! Also, early voting is going to be a logistic nightmare in terms of trying to interview/evaluate the candidates in a timely fashion." In other words, new candidates, if this primary season is like every one before, there will be a great many unevaluated candidates -- and there are only so many investigators and evaluators who have volunteered their services to their respective bar association judicial evaluation committees. It will be difficult to get everyone properly considered before early voting is upon us.

New candidates: Help the Alliance -- and also yourselves -- by contacting the Alliance today to get your evaluation process underway. Email Ms. Williams at jwilliams@isba.org or call her at (312) 920-4676.