Let's get the straight news part of the story out of the way, right up front: There are now 33 candidates for the 22 subcircuit vacancies. Arlington Heights attorney
Lynn Terese Palac filed yesterday afternoon to run for the 18th Subcircuit vacancy converted from the retirement of the Hon. Jeffrey G. Chrones. That's a link to the new candidate's website in the preceding sentence.
Palac's filing sets up a possible contest with Assistant Public Defender
Juan Ponce de Leon. That's a link to his website in the preceding sentence. Both links will be added to the candidate list in the Sidebar of the web version of this site as soon as that list can be set up.
Ponce de Leon has not previously sought election to the bench; Palac was a candidate for an 18th Subcircuit vacancy in
2024.
That's the straight news.
Now, some readers may remember that Palac ran as a Republican in 2024; she has filed as a candidate for the 2026 Democratic primary, as is her right. This revelation may cause some of you to clutch at your pearls and reach for the smelling salts:
A former Republican candidate in the Demorcratic Primary? Egads!
This is where we leave the realm of straight news and move into the land of personal opinion, namely, mine.
I don't know Ms. Palac (or Mr. Ponce de Leon for that matter). So I offer the following opinion strictly as an outside observer. To wit:
A person interested in being elected to the Cook County bench had better run as a Democrat.
No Republicans have filed for any Cook County judicial vacancy at this point. There may be some few eventually, but it is doubtful. Why bother? With very, very few exceptions (
e.g., my own State Rep. Bradley A. Stephens) no one can really hope to be elected anywhere, to anything, in Cook County
except as a Democrat. This is nothing new.
Therefore (repeating): If you want to become a judge in Cook County, you must run as a Democrat. Maybe there was room for doubt in some subcircuits during the 2024 election cycle (inasmuch as it was the first electoral test of a brand new subcircuit map), but Ms. Palac's 2024 candidacy provides tangible, empircal proof that the mapmakers knew their business.
If you find yourself offended at the prospect of one-time Republican candidates 'invading' the Democratic judicial primary, may I ask you take a big, deep cleansing breath and (if you believe in better living through chemistry) perhaps a chill pill as well?
A judicial aspirant should be the least partisan person among your acquaintance. While there is no reason why a judge would not have opinions, perhaps even pungent opinions, on any and all of the issues of the day, there is equally no reason why you, unless you are the judge's spouse, or a close member of the judge's family, or one of the judge's oldest and closest friends, should have any
clue as to what those opinions might be: Judges are supposed to be professional
neutrals, not political zealots.
The mayor and alderpersons of the City of Chicago are elected on an ostensibly nonpartisan basis -- but we elect judges in Illinois in partisan political primaries. We are living in an insane, upside down world.
You may think, based upon what you read and hear in the media and online, that many judges around the country are mere partisan hacks -- but, for you lawyers out there, is that what you want in the judges before whom you appear? ... Is that what you've seen? ... Is that what you
want?
Assuming that you don't want that, why should you object to someone who wants to serve in the judiciary doing something that practical reality requires?
We can talk about the benefits of a viable two-party system some other time. Lawyers are trained and conditioned to deal with the world as it is. We don't have a two-party system in Cook County at present. We have a one-party system. Deal with it.
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P.S. -- If there are any persons seeking judicial office in Cook County through the Republican primary, FWIW will cover them. Promise. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for any to show up.
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