A great night to be a slated Cook County judicial candidate

The majority of races were uncontested -- victory laps -- default judgments (that's a better legal term, anyway).

And in those countywide races where the party's judicial candidate faced an opponent, the party's candidate won:

• Justice Joy Virginia Cunningham keeps her seat on the Illinois Supreme Court by a nearly 3-1 margin, with similar lopsided margins in the City and suburbs alike.


• Appellate Court Justice Cynthia Y. Cobbs keeps her seat on the Appellate Court, winning by a roughly 70-30 margin in the City, and nearly as large as margin in the suburbs.


• Slated Appellate Court candidate Celia Louise Gamrath received over 72% of the suburban vote and nearly 71% of the City vote.


• All four slated candidates for the Circuit Court won their races, too. Pablo deCastro, Neil Cohen, Edward Joseph Underhill, and Debjani 'Deb' Desai compiled comfortable margins over their opponents.

It was a great night to be slated for judicial office countywide.

At this hour, it looks like former Appellate Court Justice Eileen O'Neill Burke will squeak past Clayton Harris III in the race for Cook County State's Attorney. She is running behind Harris in the latest City numbers, but by less than 2,000 votes with 91.25% of the votes counted. On the other hand, she is up by more than 15,000 in the suburbs, with 96% of the votes in.

And the Chicago transfer tax increase proposal is down by roughly 22,000 votes with 91.25% of the votes counted.

But the Devil is in the details... and there are mail-in ballots yet to be counted. So these seeming setbacks to the Party tidal wave may yet be overcome.

And, whether O'Neill prevails or not, it was a tidal wave: The Party's candidate for Clerk of the Circuit Court, Mariyana T. Spyropoulos, easily ousted incumbent Iris Y. Martinez. And Martinez was also defeated in her bid to remain 33rd Ward Committeeperson.

Subcircuit candidates running with the support of local Party leaders also fared well tonight... but not as well as those running countywide. We'll look at the subcircuits next.