No new Cook County Judicial vacancies are included in the list of judicial vacancies posted today by the Illinois State Board of Elections on its website.
The list, linked above, covers all vacancies posted through November 10. Filing for these vacancies begins Monday in Springfield and ends on December 2.
There will be a Special Judicial Filing Period, from December 16 to December 23, for any judicial vacancies occurring between November 11 and December 2.
That's a very small window.
Vacancies occurring after December 2 will no be filled, except by temporary appointment, until 2022.
A vacancy occurs when a judge gives notice of an intent to leave office -- regardless of the judge's planned departure date. To illustrate: A judge plans to retire on March 31, 2020, but sends in the required notice today. The vacancy exists for the Special Judicial Filing Period. However, if a judge plans to retire on December 31, but does not send in the required notice until December 3, that vacancy will not be filled in the 2020 election. Even though the second judge leaves office before the first judge, the first judge's vacancy is filled during the upcoming election, but the second judge's vacancy will not be filled until the 2022 election.
At this point, none of the persons slated this past Summer as alternates by the Cook County Democratic Party have a vacancy for which they are endorsed. That could change if vacancies open up during the dates covered by the Special Judicial Filing Period -- but only for those alternates who have not, in the meantime, filed to run against a slated candidate. (One or more alternates may emerge as subcircuit candidates, with Democratic Party support from the committeemen in that subcircuit -- but that remains to be seen.)
Meanwhile, according to anonymous comments left in my comment queue, about a quarter of the sitting judges in Cook County are rumored to have put in their papers, including just about everyone on the Appellate Court not already running for the Supreme Court. The reason I am not posting these comments is that I have no reason to believe that any of them are true. I will take the risk that one of these speculations may ultimately prove to be true. If any new vacancies are confirmed, I will try to get that information posted promptly.
LOL!!!!!!! Jack judges are the worst gossips. They enjoy two things the most: gossip and having their bits kissed. Oh, and posting anonymous comments on your post to see the ants scurry in reaction to half baked speculative posts.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I hear Charles Freeman is retiring. But we heard that for darn near 8 years before it finally happened. Give it up folks. You don’t have enough time to get your signatures — especially for appellate court — if a late-breaking does pop. So hunker down in your current race or gear up for 2022.
I plead guilty! I am the trickster who has been sending Jack messages announcing all manner of retirements. But I am not the only one guilty. Every name I uttered was one related to me by a sitting circuit judge -- a whole lot of them. What do you think that they talk about at those bar events? How great they are and who is retiring and running for the vacancy.
ReplyDeleteJack:
ReplyDeleteWill you have coverage of Monday’s filing? Based on what I am hearing we will be seeing a whole lot of new faces and some of our old time favorites on Monday. Will the “old dogs” have some newer or more successful tricks? Will the new kids on the block crush or get schooled. Oooooohhhhh bristles is almost here!!