Halloween deadline set for judicial candidates seeking Advocates endorsement

The Advocates Society, the Chicago area association of Polish-American attorneys, has announced an October 31 deadline for judicial candidates seeking the organization's endorsement.

The Advocates has no plans to make endorsements or recommendations in any other contests other than judicial races, according to materials provided FWIW by the Advocates.

Judicial candidates are asked to provide the Advocates Society Steering Committee with a cover letter, identifying the position sought by the candidate, a résumé, and any other information that the candidate believes would be helpful to the committee's evaluation. All materials must be sent by email to the Steering Committee in care of the committee chair, Michael Zink, at mizink9@hotmail.com.

No late submissions will be considered and, according to the Advocates' written statement, there will be no exceptions to this deadline.

The Advocates Society plans to issue its endorsements or recommendations (it occasionally has, in the past, recommended more than one candidate for a given vacancy) by the end of 2019.

The Advocates Society differs from most bar groups, including several ethnic bar associations that participate in the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening, in that it does make endorsements in judicial races. The candidate ratings issued by the Chicago Bar Association or the members of the Alliance are not endorsements. The CBA and the Alliance do not endorse individual candidates in judicial races.

The distinction between endorsements and positive ratings may seem rather unimportant to the average voter, but lawyers, and especially lawyers who aspire to be judges, are expected to appreciate and respect these distinctions. Basically, it comes down to this: Bar groups that issue ratings are not suggesting that voters support any particular candidate; they are merely providing information for the voters to use in making their choices at the polls. On the other hand, a group that issues endorsements, like the Advocates, political organizations, the Tribune, or various unions, are asking voters to support the endorsed candidate over all others.

It really gets interesting when the endorsing organization makes multiple endorsements in a single race. The Advocates Society has been very transparent on this. In races where it supports more than one candidate for a vacancy, it will "recommend" those candidates. The problem is that other bar groups use "recommended" or "not recommended" in their ratings... but, then again, we're lawyers. We like making fine distinctions.