Mary Alice Melchor to make 5th Subcircuit run

Per email received, Mary Alice Melchor has launched a bid for a 5th Subcircuit vacancy. Her supporters recently launched a campaign website in support of this effort. That's a link to the site in the preceding sentence; a link has also been added to the blog Sidebar.

According to her campaign bio, Melchor currently serves as Inspector General for the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Previously, according to the campaign bio, Melchor was the Associate Clerk of the County Bureau (2003-2005) and as the Chief Deputy Clerk in Maywood (2002-2003). Melchor has also worked as an "insurance defense attorney with the Chicago Housing Authority and an in-house attorney for Liberty Mutual Insurance," according to her campaign bio, and as a private attorney "specializing in real estate, family and probate law." She has been licensed as an attorney in Illinois since 1992, according to ARDC.

A former President of the Black Women Lawyers' Association (2008-09), Melchor has also served as the treasurer and legal consultant of the Cosmopolitan Community Church, where she has been a member for 41 years. Melchor was one of 50 women honored by the Chicago Defender in 2016 as a Woman of Excellence.

Melchor previously filed for a 5th Subcircuit vacancy in the 2016 election cycle, but withdrew before the primary. She was a countywide judicial candidate in the 2014 primary.