Pi Day -- and important deadlines day, too

Yes, today is 3/14 -- Pi Day.

In addition, today also marks a couple of big deadlines for the Mel Brooks Birthday Primary: First, today is the last day for candidates to file for existing Cook County judicial vacancies.

There will almost certainly be significant filings later this afternoon. There may even be some hanging back as candidates vie for the last ballot position in some races.

Seasoned political operatives have long believed that being last on the ballot is almost as good as being first. It is certainly Biblical -- the last shall be first -- but, alas, as longtime FWIW readers will recall, Dr. Albert J. Klumpp's exhaustive analyses of Cook County judicial races has shown no particular statistical adavantage to being last on the ballot in any given race. Look for a flurry of last-minute filings anyway.

There have been a couple of 6th Subcircuit filings, finally. Associate Judge Charles "Charlie" Beach filed for the Araujo vacancy on Friday; David S. Rodriguez filed for the Vega vacancy this morning, just before 9:00 a.m.

The other deadline today is for the special judicial vacancies filing period. There seems no non-awkward grammatical way to put that. But judicial vacancies occurring after February 21 and up to and including today will be filled in the 2022 election. The filing period for any vacancies occuring during this interval begins March 28 (and ends April 4).

So any judge who properly advises today that he or she will step down before the first Monday in December of this year will create a vacancy as of today, even though he or she may continue in office until whatever retirement date was specified. The Supreme Court can not fill a vacancy with a temporary appointment until the judge who is leaving actually goes, but the vacancy exists nonetheless.

So far, as of this morning, the only published vacancy occurring during the special filing period on the Illinois State Board of Elections website is that of the late Susanne M. Groebner in the 13th Subcircuit.

Word reached FWIW over the weekend, however, of a potential Appellate Court vacancy that may be added.

Truth be told, "Anonymous" litters my comment queue every day with rumors of this person's retirement, or that person's death. With the indictment of former House Speaker Madison, the number of these arguably libelous would-be comments has increased dramatically.

In stark contrast, the report I received this weekend of a possible second Appellate Court vacancy is from a credible source. I just haven't been able to confirm it yet. (And, interestingly, the report does not involve any of the several persons that "Anonymous" has named.) When I can confirm it, or it is made public, I will report it.

But, if there is a second Appellate Court vacancy, Judge John Ehrlich would be the Cook County Democratic Party's pre-slated candidate -- and he has already committed at least $110,000 to his election effort.