Cook County Democratic Party endorses all retention judges... except one

Once upon a time, the Cook County Democratic Party endorsed all judges seeking retention.

After all, most of those judges seeking retention were first elected with the support of the Party.

But, in days of yore, all meant all. Hard as it may be to understand for those who have come of age in our present hyperpartisan dystopia, at retention time, the Cook County Democratic Party supported even those judges first elected as -- brace yourselves -- Republicans.

But that was then.

The Cook County Democratic Party signaled its intent to refrain from supporting every retention judge earlier this year.

The Party adopted a new bylaw by the Cook County Central Committee at a January 11 meeting. Newly added Section 5 of Article VI of the Bylaws now provides:

The Executive Committee of the Cook County Democratic Party shall have the authority to recommend to the Central Committee whether to withhold endorsement from any judge(s) on the retention ballot, upon good cause shown by any member(s) of the Central Committee. “Good cause” may include consideration of bar association, peer and other ratings and reviews; public proceedings before, or discipline and sanctions imposed by, the Judicial Inquiry Board or the Illinois Supreme Court; a vacancy in office as defined by the Illinois Election Code; and misconduct bringing the office of judge into disrepute. The Central Committee may adopt, in whole or in part, such recommendation not to support retention.

At a meeting yesterday, the Cook County Democratic Party implemented this new policy. The party chose to support all judges seeking retention except Judge Matthew E. Coghlan. The announcement on the Party's website states, in pertinent part:

This morning the Cook County Democrats met and reviewed the endorsement of retention judges before the mid-term election. Based on its investigation and subsequent deliberations, the Judicial Retention Committee recommended without dissent that the Cook County Democratic party find Judge Matthew Coghlan “not recommended” for retention based on an independent investigation, which included courtroom observation as well as in person and phone interview with the judges. The Central Committee concurred unanimously, and all retention judges were endorsed except for Judge Matthew Coghlan who was found “not recommended.”

This was the first time in recent history a judge was not recommended by the Party for retention. It was difficult but necessary decision to maintain the high integrity of the Party’s values and mission.

Judge Coghlan has come under fire from the Judicial Accountability PAC (FWIW recently carried an open letter from that group asking the Party to withdraw support from Judge Coghlan). There is also a "Coalition to Dump Matt Coghlan" (the link is to a Facebook page), which bills itself as "an alliance of lawyers, grassroots organizations, activists, and community members dedicated to contesting judicial elections."

The bar associations have yet to reveal their ratings of any of the 2018 retention judges.

Prior to this election cycle, Judge Coghlan had received positive ratings from all bar groups. Many, though not all, of the allegations concerning Judge Coghlan concern his involvement (while an Assistant Cook County State's Attorney) with Reynaldo Guevara, a now-retired Chicago Police Department detective accused of coercing false confessions, leading to many wrongful convictions. (Several convictions obtained in cases in which Guevara was involved have been recently thrown out.) Upcoming bar ratings for Judge Coghlan are expected to address how the various bar groups view these allegations.

The Democratic Party's statement references an "independent investigation," without reference to any bar ratings.

The photograph accompanying this post is taken from the Cook County Retention Judges webpage. At that link, interested persons can find links to campaign bio pages for many of the judges seeking retention. This is the link to Judge Coghlan's page.