Seven candidates file for five countywide vacancies on the first day of filing

Seven Cook County judicial hopefuls, including three judges serving pursuant to Supreme Court appointment, filed nominating petitions yesterday morning when the doors opened at the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Yesterday was the first day for candidate filing for the 2026 primaries; the last day to file is November 3.

Two of the sitting judges, Michael Cabonargi and D'Anthony "Tony" Thedford, were slated by the Cook County Democratic Primary to run for the vacancies to which they were appointed (the Coghlan and Karkula vacancies, respectively). The third sitting judge, Linda Sackey (Hooks vacancy), was passed over at slating time. Judge Sackey has instead filed for the Cobbs vacancy, running against the slated candidate, Luz Maria Toledo.

The Cobbs vacancy is one of two countywide races to draw a contest so far. The other is for the Coghlan vacancy, where Ashonta C. Rice has filed against Judge Carbonagi.

FWIW readers will remember that Rice was knocked off the 2024 ballot because her nomination papers were deemed to run afoul of an Election Code provision that was supposed to keep candidates from trying to fool the public by changing their electoral ethnicity, but has actually been applied more frequently to keep women off the ballot where their marital status has changed. See, Rice v. Cook County Officers Electoral Board, 2024 IL App (1st) 240230-U (updated link). (For more on this case, see prior FWIW coverage.)

(There's a certain symmetry in Rice's 2026 campaign: The time it took to resolve the challenge to her 2024 candidacy -- early voting was underway by the time the Appellate Court ruled -- was one of the reasons why the election calendar has been moved up this year. In prior election cycles, candidate filing usually began somewhere around Thanksgiving.)

Slated candidate Ava George Stewart is the only person to file for the Hooks vacancy at this point. Steven Q. McKenzie (the link is to a Facebook campaign page), the 1st alternate slated by the Cook County Democratic Party, is the only candidate for the Kathleen M. Burke vacancy. Judge Burke retired August 31, after the slatemakers met.

Meanwhile, in the race for the Hoffman vacancy on the Appellate Court, the Democratic Party's slated candidate, Judge Judith C. Rice, was the only candidate to file yesterday.

Subcircuit filings will be discussed in subsequent posts.

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Yes, after a more than three month boycott, I guess I'm back for one last campaign. Politics seems uglier than ever to me; perhaps it seems that way to you as well. On the other hand, informed voting is our civic duty. So here we are....