Chicago Tribune judicial endorsements announced

The Chicago Tribune has completed its endorsements in Cook County judicial races.

The link to the Tribune's endorsements in countywide races can be found here; the paper's subcircuit endorsements can be accessed at this link.

The Tribune invited judicial candidates to complete questionnaires; the list of candidates and questionnaire responses can be found at this page of the Tribune website.

If I may say so, the Tribune's endorsements are remarkably non-snarky in this election cycle. The race for the countywide Howlett, Jr. vacancy, for example, was described as a "tough call," because the candidates are both good ("[i]t's a shame that these two fine candidates are running against each other"), not because the paper framed the contest as a choice between the Devil and the deep blue sea.

Believe it or not, the Tribune actually says nice things about two different subcircuit races (that's two more than ever, as far as I can tell): The Tribune refers to a "stellar field" for the Democratic nomination for the Kazmierski, Jr. vacancy in the 12th Subcircuit; in commenting on the field of candidates seeking the Howard vacancy in the 10th Subcircuit, the Tribune says, "Voters can scarcely go wrong with this lineup."

I had to keep checking the URL to make sure I was really on the Tribune website.

At any rate, here are the Tribune endorsements in countywide races:

Rossana Patricia Fernandez - Elrod vacancy
Alison C. Conlon - Hogan vacancy
Thomas Maloney Cushing - Howlett, Jr. vacancy
Mark A. Lyon - Johnson vacancy
Devlin J. Schoop - Karnezis vacancy
Pat Heneghan - Palmer vacany
Daniel Patrick Duffy - Ruscitti Grussel vacancy
Fredrick H. Bates - Walsh vacancy

In subcircuit races, the Tribune endorses:

Maryam Ahmad - 1st Subcircuit, Brim vacancy
Anthony Simpkins - 1st Subcircuit, Hopkins vacancy

Travis Richardson - 2nd Subcircuit, Savage vacancy

Leonard Murray - 5th Subcircuit, Eadie-Daniels vacancy
Robin Denise Shoffner - 5th Subcircuit, Williams vacancy

Anna Loftus - 6th Subcircuit, "A" vacancy

Patricia "Pat" S. Spratt - 7th Subcircuit, Rivkin-Carothers vacancy

Jerry Esrig - 9th Subcircuit, Berman vacancy

Richard "Rick" Cenar - 10th Subcircuit, Howard vacancy

Marc Martin - 11th Subcircuit, Kelly vacancy

Marguerite Anne Quinn - 12th Subcircuit, Kazmierski, Jr. vacancy
Janet Cronin Mahoney - 12th Subcircuit, Mathein vacancy
James Edward Hanlon, Jr. - 12th Subcircuit, "A" vacancy (Democratic)
Steven A. Kozicki - 12th Subcircuit, "A" vacancy (Republican)

Gary W. Seyring - 13th Subcircuit, Fecarotta, Jr. vacancy (Republican)

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