Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge No. 7, offers endorsements in some Cook County judicial races

The Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago John Dineen Lodge No. 7 has published endorsements in several local races, including several contested Cook County judicial primaries. A complete list of those endorsements currently shows as a 'pop-up' on the Lodge's home page; click here for a stand-alone .pdf copy.

In contested Cook County judicial races, the FOP has made the following endorsements:

Supreme Court Vacancy

Joy Virginia Cunningham

Appellate Court Vacancies

Carolyn J. Gallagher (Cunningham vacancy)
Celia Louise Gamrath (Delort vacancy)

Circuit Court Vacancy

Debjani 'Deb' Desai (Propes vacancy)

Subcircuit Vacancies

James V. Murphy (10th Subcircuit - Wojkowski vacancy)
Kim Przekota (11th Subcircuit - Daleo vacancy)
Bridget Colleen Duigan (19th Subcircuit - Converted from Senechalle, Jr. vacancy)

Readers will notice that Justice Cunningham has now been endorsed by both the CTU and the FOP. This may be the first time in some time that the Chicago teachers and police unions have agreed with each other on anything. (Cunningham has also been endorsed by Girl, I Guess.) (For what it's worth, I argue, in this post, published this morning, that endorsements from groups that ordinarily disagree with one another about the color of the sky should be seen as a positive reflection on the candidate's reputation for fairness.)

In other races of interest to FWIW readers, the FOP did endorse Iris Y. Martinez for Clerk of the Circuit Court... but it did not endorse Eileen O'Neill Burke for Cook County State's Attorney.

The FOP certainly appears inclined in Burke's favor. However, according to an article by Mitchell Krugel in the March issue of Lodge 7's Official Magazine, Burke did not ask for the police endorsement. Krugel writes:

It's not what you think. [Burke] revealed to [Lodge 7 Political Director Mike] Cosentino on a couple of occasions why a Lodge 7 endorsement would not be in her best interest.

"She has to oversee police officers and sheriffs, and some cases might come in front of her for criminal prosecution," he added. "She does not believe that getting an endorsement or money from any police organization or any sheriff's organization would be the correct thing to do. She said, 'To me, that's hypocritical, and I won't do it.'"