In case you didn't already know, the Cook County Democratic Party has endorsed every judicial retention candidate

Here's the flyer:

This blanket endorsement of the entire retention class is consistent with historical norms. Yes, the Cook County Democratic Party refused to support one or more retention judges in 2018 and 2020, but those were the aberrations.

In a recent article posted on Injustice Watch, "Vote 'yes' for all of us: Why Cook County judges run as a 'class'," Maya Dukmasova writes that, though the Cook County Democratic Party "also makes its own recommendations about judicial retention, it rarely diverges from the committee's message to re-elect all judges — the vast majority of whom get on the bench as Democrats."

And, yes, the vast majority of judges sitting in Cook County were elected as Democrats. This year, all judges elected in Cook County will be elected as Democrats since there are no Republicans running. So that might seem like the explanation for regular party support.

But, actually, the Cook County Democratic Party has traditionally supported retention judges, whether they were elected as Republicans or Democrats. Back in the days of Richard J. Daley, the "county towns" elected mostly Republican judges. An occasional Republican might even slip through in a countywide race (though it hasn't happened since 1996). And, yet, even in the Daley years the Cook County Democratic Party supported all retention judges, however they got on the bench. Until recent years, that was the norm. It has apparently become the norm again.

Even though (as Dukmasova's article illustrates) the retention judges run together as a "class," sub-groups may emerge in the course of the election cycle, as judges seek as much support as they can find. The poster below (which has been making the rounds on Facebook in recent days) illustrates the point:

Getting a "yes" vote from 60% (plus 1) from the electorate is something that no retention candidate will take for granted.