Illinois judicial elections, 2012

Judicial Elections
Elections, 2012
Judicial election dates
Find your state

The Illinois judicial elections will consist of a primary on March 20th and a general election on November 6th.

Supreme Court

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Party	Predecessor	Primary Vote	Election Vote
PucinskiAurelia Marie Pucinski	No	Democratic	Vacancy of Thomas Fitzgerald	21%
RileyJames G. Riley	No	Republican	Vacancy of Thomas Fitzgerald		25.3%   D
CunninghamJoy Cunningham	No	Democratic	Vacancy of Thomas Fitzgerald	23%
TheisMary Jane Theis   A	Yes	Democratic	Vacancy of Thomas Fitzgerald	48%A	74.7%   A
GarmanRita Garman   A	Yes	Republican			A
FlanniganThomas W. Flannigan	No	Democratic	Vacancy of Thomas Fitzgerald	7%

Appellate Court

First District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Party	Predecessor	Primary Vote	Election Vote
SmithJames Fitzgerald Smith   A	Yes				A
ReyesJesse G. Reyes   A	No	Democratic	Vacancy of Sheila O'Brien	33%A	100%   A
DelortMathias W. Delort   A	No	Democratic	Vacancy of Robert Cahill	25%A	100%   A
ConnorsMaureen Connors   A	Yes	Democratic	Vacancy of Mary Jane Theis	A	100%   A
HowseNathaniel R. Howse   A	No	Democratic	Vacancy of Sharon Coleman	A	100%   A
NevilleP. Scott Neville   A	Yes	Democratic	Vacancy of Michael Gallagher	44%A	100%   A
LavinTerrence J. Lavin   A	Yes	Democratic	Vacancy of John Tully	A	100%   A

Second District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Party	Predecessor	Primary Vote	Election Vote
BirkettJoseph Birkett   A	Yes	Republican	Vacancy of John O'Malley	A	100%   A

Fourth District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Party	Predecessor	Primary Vote	Election Vote
PopeCarol Pope   A	Yes	Republican	Vacancy of Sue Myerscough	A	100%   A
TurnerJohn W. Turner   A	Yes				A

Fifth District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Party	Predecessor	Primary Vote	Election Vote
CatesJudy Cates   A	No	Democratic	Vacancy of James Donovan	A	52.1%   A
ChapmanMelissa Chapman   A	Yes				A
McGlynnStephen P. McGlynn	No	Republican	Vacancy of James Donovan	A	47.9%   D

In the News

Illinois primary results

As featured in JP Election Brief: The Rainbow Connection on March 22, 2012.

This week's primary election in Illinois helped solidify Justice Mary Jane Theis' standing as a member of the Illinois Supreme Court. Though challenged by three opponents, Theis emerged with 48% of the vote in the Democratic primary, winning her party's nomination. She will compete against Republican James G. Riley in the general election.

On the Illinois Appellate Court, there were three races in the First District. Below are the results:

For the Cahill vacancy, Mathias W. Delort won the six-way Democratic primary with 25% of the vote.

For the Gallagher vacancy, P. Scott Neville won a three-way Democratic primary with 44% of the vote.

For the O'Brien vacancy, Jesse G. Reyes won a five-way Democratic primary with 33% of the vote.

Lights out in Illinois Supreme Court debate

As featured in JP Election Brief: Three in the midwest and two in the south on March 8, 2012.

On Tuesday, the four candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Supreme Court were left in the dark during part of their debate on Chicago Tonight. The TV studio where the debate was being filmed experienced a complete blackout for about 25 minutes. In light of the night's somewhat contentious discussions, however, the outage was probably the least of the candidates' concerns.

One of the issues revolved around incumbent Judge Mary Jane Theis' relation with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Judge Theis was appointed to a temporary term in October of 2010--in time for her to take part in a unanimous ruling that determined Emanuel was eligible to run for mayor. Theis's opponents, Judge Joy Cunningham and Aurelia Marie Pucinski, pointed out that Theis was Emanuel's neighbor and should have recused herself from the case. Pucinski pointed to Emanuel's campaign contributions by to Theis's campaign, but Theis defended her decision, stating, "The fact that one of the litigants in the case lives in the same area that I lived, I really don't think that the people of the city of Chicago would question my integrity."

Another topic of debate was bar association ratings. Theis and Cunningham received positive ratings from all of the major groups of lawyers, while Pucinski and lawyer Thomas W. Flannigan did not do as well. Pucinski dismissed the relevance of the ratings, saying, "What a great idea - let's let lawyers decide who they like. I do not think that the bar ratings are the be-all and end-all of this campaign." Flannigan only received an endorsement from one bar association.

Overall, the tension between Theis and Pucinski seemed to be the highest. It will be interesting to see which of the four candidates is chosen to face Republican Judge James G. Riley in November. Whoever it is, Riley's chances don't look good. Researcher Albert Klumpp explained that the last time a Republican defeated a Democrat for a Supreme Court vacancy was in 1924.

You can watch the online portion of the debate here: Chicago Tonight: Illinois Supreme Court Candidate Forum.

Circuit Courts

For Circuit Court judicial elections, please visit: Illinois judicial elections, 2012 - Circuit Court

See also

• News: Cook county judge hopefuls attend 'the slating' to lobby for Democratic party endorsements, November 8, 2011

External links

• Illinois State Board of Elections - Offices Up for Election
• Illinois State Board of Elections, Judicial Vacancies
• Morris Daily Herald, "Former prosecutor Navarro enters race for La Salle judge," August 2, 2011
• The Register-Mail, "Tim Londrigan eyes circuit judge race," August 24, 2011
• The State Journal-Register, "Bernard Schoenburg: "Tim Londrigan eyes circuit judge race," August 25, 2011
• T. Scott Webb seeks election as circuit judge 9/10
• Chicago Sun-Times, "Democratic primary for Illinois Supreme Court a three-woman race," October 4, 2011
• BND.com, "Madison County Judge Romani won't seek retention; Napp to seek position," October 18, 2011
• Carmi Times.com, "Judy Cates seeks election", October 27, 2011, Judy Cates election website
• Benton Evening News, "Stephen Swofford will run for 2nd Circuit judge seat," November 30, 2011
• VoteforJudges.org: Judicial Evaluations for Chicago area judges

References