The CBA offers three ratings for candidates seeking election to judicial office, "Highly Qualified," "Qualified," and "Not Recommended." According to the CBA, of the 110 candidates running in this year's primary, 20 are "Highly Qualified" for judicial service, while 56 more were rated "Qualified." Only 93 candidates were screened by the CBA; 16 candidates declined to participate in the CBA's screening process and were automatically found "Not Recommended." An additional candidate was found "Not Recommended" automatically because she was a member of the CBA's Judicial Evaluation Committee when the JEC began its investigative work for candidates running in the March 2018 primary.
The CBA reports that there are 18 judicial candidates on the primary ballot who were evaluated within the last three years, 13 of whom were found "Qualfied" and five of whom were found "Highly Qualified," all of whom have since been appointed to the Circuit Court of Cook County. At the time of their evaluation they were not sitting judges, thus their findings -- which will be reproduced here on FWIW in posts later today -- do not refer to their judicial service.
Of the 20 candidates rated "Highly Qualified" by the CBA, three are running countywide, Preston Jones, Jr., Brian Terrence Sexton, and Jack Hagerty.
The other 17 candidates found "Highly Qualified" by the CBA are running in the subcircuits. These are:
- Adrienne Elaine Davis - 2nd Subcircuit, Laws vacancy
- Toya T. Harvey - 2nd Subcircuit, Rhodes vacancy
- Debra A. Seaton - 2nd Subcircuit, Willis vacancy
- David Navarro - 4th Subcircuit, Davy vacancy
- Caroline Jamieson Golden - 4th Subcircuit, Davy vacancy
- John O'Meara - 4th Subcircuit, Riley vacancy
- Robert F. Harris - 5th Subcircuit, Washington II vacancy
- Kent Delgado - 6th Subcircuit, Chevere vacancy
- James 'Jamie" Shapiro - 8th Subcircuit, Fabri vacancy
- Gerald Cleary - 10th Subcircuit, Suriano vacancy
- Scott J. Frankel - 11th Subcircuit, Kennedy vacancy
- Joel Chupack - 12th Subcircuit, Maki vacancy
- Michael Gerber - 13th Subcircuit, Lawrence vacancy
- Samuel J. Betar III - 13th Subcircuit, O'Donnell vacancy
- Marina Ammendola - 14th Subcircuit, Garcia vacancy
- Michael B. Barrett - 15th Subcircuit, Scully, Jr. vacancy
- Karla Marie Fiaoni - 15th Subcircuit, Zelezinski vacancy
Nice job CBA. You rated one candidate highly qualified that multiple bar associations found not qualified, and the CCL went so far as to cite numerous examples of his misconduct.
ReplyDeleteSomething interesting: This is the first time since subcircuit elections began in 1992 that every single judicial contest in a primary election includes at least one candidate found "qualified" or better by both the CBA and the CCL. It's always a high percentage but this is the first instance of 100 percent.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't "Highly Qualified" sound like an endorsement?
ReplyDelete