Tuesday, March 10, 2026

What is going on with the Plumbers Union judicial endorsements?

Not as much as it first seemed: Updated with additional information

The Chicago Journeymen Plumbers' and Technical Engineers Local Union 130 UA has again updated its endorsements of judicial candidates in the forthcoming primary. The complete list is available at this link.

Yesterday, I updated my prior story on the Plumbers Union endorsements because the Plumbers had added Jarrett Knox, a candidadte for the McLean Meyerson vacancy in the 11th Subcircuit, to their list (the list had previously indicated that Local 130 was neutral in that race).

This morning, I was informed -- and I have since verified, linking above to the .pdf file online -- that, in the race for the Gamrath vacancy in the 8th Subcircuit, Local 130 has seemingly pulled its previous endorsement of Garson Fischer and endorsed Kathleen Cunniff Ori instead. I have updated the Organizing the Data post on that race accordingly.

The interesting thing, as you will note by following the Plumbers endorsement link, is that the document online is presented as a March 4 letter, with no indication of it being updated. But it has been... twice so far that I know of.

UPDATE: I reached out to the Plumbers Union to see if I could get any sort of explanation for the apparent change in endorsements, and I have now heard back from the Local 130's Political Director, Mr. John D'Amico. D'Amico told me there'd been no change in endorsements; nobody's endorsement got pulled. Garson Fischer's name got included by mistake, D'Amico said. Local 130 had endorsed Kathleen Cunniff Ori for the Gamrath vacancy and Jarrett Knox for the McLean Meyerson vacancy, D'Amico told me, and both were sent letters to that effect. But the list was long and, well, mistakes were made. Typos, really.

I can certainly understand that... as FWIW readers have pointed out several times over the years....

So, for the sake of clarity, here is the list of endorsements made by Local 130 -- not updated, not changed, but merely corrected:

Countywide Vacancies
Cobbs Vacancy - Luz Maria Toledo
Coughlin Vacancy - Michael Cabonargi
Subcircuit Vacancies
1st Subcircuit (Balanoff) - Radiance Ward
1st Subcircuit (Walker) - Ashley Greer Shambley

3rd Subcircuit (Sherlock) - Neutral

8th Subcircuit (Gamrath) - Kathleen Cunniff Ori
8th Subcircuit (Mikva) - Katherine C. Morrison

11th Subcircuit (McLean Meyerson) - Jarrett Knox

17th Subcircuit (Brooks) - Meridth Hammer
17th Subcircuit (Carroll) - André Thapedi

19th Subcircuit (Kane) - John Harkins

20th Subcircuit (Miller) - Jon Stromsta
All relevant Organizing the Data posts have already been updated.

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For further reading: "Start here for the most complete information about every 2026 Cook County judicial race"

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