Let me explain... No, there is too much. Let me sum up....

So much has happened... and hasn't happened....

I suppose the headline is supposed to be that Appellate Court Justice Nathaniel R. Howse filed for the Supreme Court vacancy, late yesterday afternoon, just as the filing deadline for the regular judicial filing period closed. John Seasly has a post up this morning on Injustice Watch, "Diversity at stake in competitive Illinois Supreme Court race."

But there are a couple of other headlines from yesterday that may be as significant.

First, there are no new Cook County judicial vacancies. Despite a bevy of rumors, some of them quite gruesome, the Illinois State Board of Elections has posted no new Cook County judicial vacancies for the special judicial filing period later this month. No one seriously expected vacancies to open up for each of the 10 alternates pre-selected by the Cook County Democratic Party -- but the call never came for any of them.

And, second, while there are eight candidates preparing to slug it out for the Democratic nomination for the Freeman vacancy on the Illinois Supreme Court, not one Republican filed for that vacancy.

I realize that seven other candidates have very different outcomes in mind... but, in a crowded field, assuming all the candidates who filed remain on the ballot, there is a chance that a candidate who has been licensed as an attorney for only four years might be the Democratic Party's nominee for the Illinois Supreme Court. This is not to suggest or imply anything against Mr. Epstein personally... I've met him... and he seems like a perfectly nice person. And he has a very interesting background and some carefully-formed ideas about the justice system, whether you agree with them or not. But four years experience as an attorney? If nominated and elected, Justice Epstein would almost certainly have clerks who have longer legal experience. One would have thought that the Republicans would have scrounged up a candidate somehow... just in case Epstein emerges as the Democratic nominee.

But, no.

And, once again, no Republican filed for either Cook County Appellate Court vacancy, or any countywide vacancy.

Only four Republicans filed for three subcircuit vacancies, Frank R. DiFranco in the 12th Subcircuit, Gary William Seyring and Angel Garcia in the 13th Subcircuit (the one and only judicial race in which Republican primary voters will have a choice of judicial candidates), and La Vetta D. Williams in the 15th Subcircuit.

The two-party system, however healthy it may be in other parts of this fair land of ours, is dead as a doornail in Cook County. (And, yet, how many local candidates will try and make it seem as if they are running against Donald J. Trump?)