UPDATE TO POST
October 2, 2020
Judge running for retention Mauricio Araujo has resigned from the bench as of Monday, October 5, 2020 and will not be seeking retention. His name remains on the ballot. We suggest that you leave that vote box BLANK.
SECOND UPDATE TO POST
October 13, 2020
The Chicago Sun-Times today published a strong caution about four Cook County Circuit Court judges running for retention: Kenneth J. Wadas, Marguerite Ann Brennan, Patrick J. Sherlock and Anna Helen Demacopoulos.
Wadas: “Judicial decisions by Wadas have been reversed 25 times by the Illinois Appellate Court in the past six years, nearly twice as often as the combined total of the other five criminal judges running for retention this year. Appeals courts found that Wadas frequently disregards a law that prevents excessive sentencing and incorrectly dismissed prisoners’ claims of errors during their trials. A typical bad decision by Wadas was his sentencing to 100 years in prison, effectively a life sentence, of a young man who had committed murder at age 16. A federal appellate court ruled that Wadas had failed to take the offender’s age into consideration, which is required by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ‘children are different.’ Wadas’ response to the appellate court’s reversal was to grouse about it and resentence the offender to 39 years in prison – just a year short of the toughest sentence allowed.” . . . There’s a good argument Wadas . . . never should have been elected to the bench in the first place in 1996.”
The article also notes that as an assistant state’s attorney in the 1980s Wadas was involved in multiple cases in which prosecutorial misconduct led to appellate reversals.
Brennan, Sherlock, Demacopoulos. “Their rulings have been reversed on appeal more than three times as often as their colleagues.”
The Sun-Times took this information from reporting by John Seasly of Injustice Watch (https://www.injusticewatch.org/). The site has a useful Judicial Election Guide.
EVALUATIONS OF JUDICIAL CANDIDATES
ALLIANCE OF BAR ASSOCIATIONS FOR JUDICIAL SCREENING
2020 – GENERAL ELECTION – 2020
Cook County, Illinois
Getting ready to vote? Got yourself all set to vote for national and local candidates? Great. Be proud.
But also be prepared to vote down-ballot for a LOT of judges if you live in Cook County, IL. Yes, we vote for judges in this state. We fill vacancies. We vote to retain judges (they have to run every 6 years to be retained).
In the 2020 General Election, you’ll be voting BOTH to fill vacancies on various benches and to retain Circuit Court and Subcircuit judges.
The Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening does yeoman work in evaluating judge candidates of all stripes. This alliance contains 12 distinct Bar Associations (see below). In each election cycle in which judges are running the Alliance publishes an evaluation grid of those running for vacant seats and those running for retention. We’ve been waiting for their evaluation grid for the 2020 General Election, especially because early voting has already begun.
And finally it is out! The grid is not quite complete but we’re calling it close enough for us to make our decisions.
Almost all judges are recommended for retention or election, but there are a few who are NOT recommended. I’m listing below those who are totally non-recommended and those who have 2 or more bar associations saying “No.” If you wish, you can delve more deeply into the reasons one or more Bar Associations are not recommending a specific judge. We have not done that here in the interest of getting the important information out in a timely manner.
Remember: you CAN affect the retention of a judge. Retention requires that a judge receive 60% of the votes cast for her/him to be retained. If someone really deserves NOT to be retained, enough of your NO votes to bring that judge below 60% would remove the judge from the bench.
Finally, you will not necessarily see all the names below on your ballot. You’ll be voting on all Illinois Appellate Court candidates and on all Circuit Court Countywide seats, and for judges in county subcircuits. In the latter cases, you’ll vote only on those in the subcircuit in which you vote.
If you wish to see who is on your local ballot, do the following:
Go to https://illinoisvoterguide.org/ (the League of Women Voters of Illinois voting site)
- Either login (if you already have a username) or set up an account (very simple)
- Follow the instructions to get to the ballot you will have when you vote
- You will click on various offices to see who the candidates are; you get to pick your candidate, then “Add to My Ballot”. Be sure to do that for each candidate you pick.
- When you get to the judicial candidates, use the document you’re looking at right now to assess whom to vote for.
- You can print your ballot with your choices already on it. Take it with you to vote.
Here’s the list of judges or judge candidates NOT RECOMMENDED
Candidates Running for Vacant Court Seats
Cook County Circuit Court – Countywide – Bellows Vacancy
Tiesha L. Smith: “Not Recommended” by all 12 bar associations
Cook County Circuit Court – 1st Subcircuit – Brooks Vacancy
Krista D. Butler: “Not Recommended” by all 12 bar associations
Cook County Circuit Court – 14th Subcircuit – Lacy Vacancy
Perla Tirado – “Not Recommended” by 3 associations
Candidates Running for Retention
Mauricio Araujo
Has resigned from the bench and will not be seeking retention.
Jackie Marie Portman-Brown
“Not Recommended” by 5 bar associations
John J. Mahoney
“Not Recommended” by 3 bar associations
Diana Rosario
“Not Recommended” by 2 bar associations
Special Notes:
Michael P. Toomin
Recommended by 9 of the associations; 3 did not evaluate. This is the judge not supported by the Cook County Democratic Organization because he appointed a special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case.
Patricia Manila Martin
Has withdrawn from running for re-election
The remainder of the judges are recommended for retention by most or all of the associations.
Here’s the link to the Association grid for your information.
http://voteforjudges.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Alliance-2020-General-Election-Ratings-9.27.pdf
Members, The Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening
AABAR: Arab American Bar Association of Illinois
AABA: Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area
BWLA: Black Women Lawyer’s Association of Greater Chicago
CCL: Chicago Council of Lawyers
CCBA: Cook County Bar Association
DSL: Decalogue Society of Lawyers
HBA: Hellenic Bar Association of Illinois
HLAI: Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois
ISBA: Illinois State Bar Association
LAGBAC: Lesbian and Gay Bar Association
PRBA: Puerto Rican Bar Association
WBAI: Women’s Bar Association
Edmund J. McDevitt
©October, 2020