I do not yet have the full list.
Presumably I'll have the full list tomorrow at some point; when I do have it, I will post it. Then, and only then, will we be able to say with certainty who is on the list and how many vacancies there are to be filled (there are two names on the short list for each available vacancy per Supreme Court Rule 39).
In the meantime, I've cobbled together a partial, unofficial list from lists I've obtained from others.
If I include someone's name below who is not on the actual list, I apologize in advance.
If my sources are correct, there are at least seven sitting judges on the list and at least one former judge who made the cut.
The former judge is John S. Fotopoulos, who was a 15th Subcircuit candidate in 2014 and received a countywide appointment in 2017. He was not a candidate in the 2018 primary -- but he was a finalist in the 2018 Associate Judge selection. So he is apparently returning to the Short List for a second time.
So, too, apparently, is Judge Marina E. Ammendola. She currently sits by appointment to the countywide Sheehan vacancy, but was passed over at slating time. She was on the Short List in 2018, too.
It is unusual, but not unheard of, for a person to make the Short List twice. And it's not unusual for the court to 'save' some appointed judges who have had trouble winning contested primaries via the Associate Judge selection process.
What is unusual -- truly remarkable -- is that the Short List will apparently contain four candidates for countywide vacancies up for election in March, all of whom have been slated by the Cook County Democratic Party. Three are already judges.
They are Judges Celestia L. Mays (appointed to, and slated for, the countywide Funderburk vacancy), Levander Smith, Jr. (appointed to, and slated for, the countywide Larsen vacancy), and Lloyd James Brooks (appointed to, and slated for, the O'Brien vacancy). Laura Ayala-Gonzalez is not yet a judge, but she was slated by the Democratic Party for the countywide Ford vacancy.
And at least three other incumbent judges, Judges Fredrick H. Bates (1st Subcircuit, Brooks vacancy), Tyria B. Walton (1st Subcircuit, Crawford vacancy), and Daniel O. Tiernan (14th Subcircuit, Lacy vacancy) are also reportedly on the Short List.
If each of these judges is selected as an associate judge and each then wins their respective elections they will, by themselves, trigger a new round of associate judge selection. (Per Rule 39, Cook County is supposed to start a new selection round once there are five associate judge vacancies.)
As already noted, it is unusual, but not unheard of, for a person to make the Short List twice. But not many do.
In 2018, for example, there were two finalists who'd made a prior Short List. Both were selected.
If my sources are accurate, however, there will be nine or more finalists this time who were also on a prior Short List. In addition to Fotopoulos and Ammendola, Judges Mays, Smith, and Brooks were on the 2018 Short List.
And Curtis Bennett Ross, Leo Steven Rakowski, Michael James Hogan Jr., and Amee Elizabeth Alonso are all reportedly on the forthcoming Short List. Each was a finalist in 2018.
At least one person who was slated by the Cook County Democratic Party as an alternate, depending on whether additional countywide vacancies opened up, Frank Andreou, has also apparently made the Short List. There may be one or even two others.
Some apparent newcomers to the list are Katherine A. O'Dell, John Fairman, Ruth Gudino, and Aileen Bhandari.
2 months ago
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12 comments:
All of these names are accurate.
Wouldn’t a sitting Circuit Judge, up in a Primary or not, have to resign their circuit judgeship if they chose to be an AJ? Why not? Would they hold two offices? Can you be a candidate in both an AJ and Circuit Court elections? Anyone know the statutes involved?
This is exactly why Evans should not have been reelected. The circuit court judges rejected many of these candidates and yet here they are again. The process is shameful.
The fact someone didn’t make it the first time is no basis for them to not get a second chance. There are plenty of people who make it the second or third time. Don’t hate because you never got selected for the team. And no kids, of everybody gets to be a judge. Oh, by the way, Mike Forti is also a selectee.
Mike Forti
Geri Pinzur Rosenberg
Jenny Coleman
Steve Rakowski
Ruth Gudino
John Fairman
Teresa Smith
Ed Maloney
And almost every unsuccessful black candidate from the class of 2018 who was appointed by Neville to a countywide vacancy and then got targeted by an Irish gal for the St. Patrick’s Day Massacre. I don’t know what disgusts me more. This name game bullshit begets other bullshit.
If these judges win none of them will stay in the race. They will take vacations in March 2020 while the rest of you are freezing at early voting locations. Especially Bates and Forti. They have been at this long enough to know. They are saving Forti to help Balanoff’s kid. And Bates to help No Payne, No Gain, No Clue how to run a campaign.
Anon 11/4 @10:24 p.m. -- An appointed judge would have to give up his or her appointment if selected as an AJ -- but that same newly-minted AJ could continue to campaign for the vacancy to which he or she was formerly appointed. If he or she wins, the AJ slot would come open again on the first Monday in December 2020 -- and if he or she loses, he or she still has the AJ spot. It's a great situation for those candidates -- but only if they are selected as AJs now.
Anon 11/5 @3:24 a.m. -- 3:24 a.m.? Really? Of course, that is 11:24 a.m. in Bulgaria, 12:24 p.m. in Moscow. But let's assume you're just a local insomniac. Why in the world would a Nominating Committee not start with the half of the Short List that didn't make it last time? Unless someone had done something disqualifying in the interim, or new information had come out, in theory, at least, each of the finalists would have been, in the eyes of the Committee, a good colleague. So the disappointed finalists from the last list should have a leg up.
That's not how we've done it here in the past, so the reelection of the Chief Judge presumably has nothing to do with this unusual turn of events -- unless, of course, the Chief Judge is responding to concerns raised by his colleagues that unsuccessful AJ finalists should not automatically be consigned to Short List oblivion. Confirmation on this may be found if a lot of former finalists are selected in this round.
Why are people shocked at the outcome? Trump-run Russian beauty contests with Putin’s girlfriend as a contestant were run more fairly. Nearly all of those selected were interviewed by the committee in the last two days of interviews. So when the nearly 300 interviews we’re scheduled, somehow those who ended up being selected ended up being scheduled last, almost as if these folks were — gasp — selected well in advance.
The interviews were perfunctory, like an 11th wars Streets & San job opening.
This is opinion but within the past year one of 3 Illinois Supreme Court Justices appoints several new Circuit Judges. Major clout is needed for that appointment. Then, all of these newly appointed Circuit Judges get to vote for Chief Judge in September. Chief Judge Evans wins. Chief Judge Evans then protects almost every one of these new Judges by almost assuring them of an Associate Judge spot. Wonder who each new clouted appointed Circuit Judge voted for for Chief Judge? So then these clouted, loyal to the Chief, Circuits are given yet another protective cloak to wear with their clouted robe? Incredible.
Anon 11/5 @7:50 a.m. -- There were roughly 200 interviews, not 300; there weren't as many applicants this time.
And I would suggest that describing the Nominating Committee's interviews as "perfunctory" is probably inappropriate. Not that I dispute your suggestion that the Committee had some fair idea early on about where it would wind up -- however, in my experience (and, believe me, I've had plenty), the AJ interview is one of the nicest, friendliest interviews imaginable. It's as if the Committee members know they won't choose you... but they can at least be nice about it. If the interview were merely perfunctory, there would be no need for these niceties. (I'd much rather they were grouchy and irascible but put me through to the Short List just once -- but I don't get a choice in the matter.)
Many good candidates never get a chance. Despite very positive bar ratings I never made the short list, so I gave up. I could tell by the bored faces I had no chance. But how many chances should people get? Multiple times on short list, multiple appointments, Dem Party slating...Enough already.
What a fire drill. Evans told them to report to the Daley Center at 10:00 am and then pushed it back to 2:00 after several people timely reported at 10:00. What a classic Tim Evans cluster.
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