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All 60 Cook County circuit judges up for retention are on track to keep their seats for another six years — but three hover just above the 60% threshold needed, according to preliminary results from the Cook County clerk and the Chicago Board of Elections.
All three judges who hold slim margins as of Wednesday morning received negative ratings from at least one of the 14 local bar associations that review judicial performance.
Judge Tiesha L. Smith, who was subject to seven negative bar association ratings, held 61.79% “yes” votes as of Wednesday morning, with votes left to count in a few dozen city precincts and mail-in ballots not yet tallied.
The margins were similarly tight for Judge Ursula Walowski, who stands at 62.12%, and for Judge Lorraine Mary Murphy, who stands at 63.11%, per preliminary results.
It appears that Smith, Walowski, and Murphy all owe their likely retention to suburban voters. All appeared to fall below the 60% vote threshold needed among city voters as of Wednesday morning, while in the suburbs, with all precincts reporting, all three won comfortably.
Results are subject to change as Chicago election officials continue to tabulate votes. Final totals may not be known for days or weeks.
Smith serves in the juvenile justice division, where she primarily rules on juvenile expungement petitions. The Illinois State Bar Association pointed to reports of “screaming matches” in her courtroom, including between the judge and minors who appeared before her. The Chicago Council of Lawyers found Smith qualified, but only after she agreed to take a stress management course. Some lawyers who spoke to the group said she had adopted a “hostile temperament” after she was reassigned to the juvenile division two years ago.
Smith declined to comment on the preliminary election results.
Walowski has spent nearly two decades on the bench, more than most other judges on the ballot this year. But Injustice Watch reported last month that the Illinois Appellate Court had overturned her rulings, verdicts or sentences at least 25 times in the past six years, sometimes sharply criticizing her work.
Appellate judges wrote in rulings that Walowski had neglected defendants’ rights and misjudged evidence in some past cases. In 2023, for example, a unanimous panel reversed a murder conviction, ruling that Walowski failed to explain to a defendant his right to an attorney and the risks of representing himself. He was subsequently convicted. The Cook County Bar Association said Walowski should not be retained.
Walowski could not immediately be reached for comment. She previously told Injustice Watch she thinks the reversals stem in part from her working efficiently through a high volume of cases in criminal court, where cases are frequently appealed.
Murphy hears felony cases and presides over the drug treatment court program in Skokie. She received two negative bar ratings, although other bar associations found her to be qualified. The Illinois State Bar Association cited her “lack of impartiality in criminal cases in favor of the prosecution,” along with the “careless preparation” of her judicial evaluation questionnaire submitted to the bar association.
Murphy declined to comment on the preliminary results.
Illinois is one of just two states that have aspiring judges compete for the bench in partisan elections, then run for subsequent terms on their own records in nonpartisan retention elections. Every two years, a portion of the circuit court bench appears on the ballot, and voters choose “yes” or “no” on whether each judge up for retention should remain on the bench. To keep their seat, a judge must receive at least 60% “yes” votes.
Historically, Cook County voters have rarely unseated judges. Since 2018, just three Cook County circuit judges have been voted off the bench.
That year, Judge Matthew Coghlan became the first judge to lose his seat in nearly three decades. Injustice Watch found that Coghlan had a history of harsh sentences, including one-year sentences for several Black defendants convicted of marijuana possession, while drawing criticism for lenient sentences in cases in which police officers were the defendants. Community groups mounted a “Dump Coghlan” campaign, taking issue with his sentencing and his past work as a prosecutor, when he had been accused in a federal civil rights lawsuit of helping frame two men who were later found to be wrongfully convicted.
In 2020, Judge Jackie Portman-Brown was voted out after the Chicago Sun-Times published footage of her locking her grandniece in a holding cell behind her courtroom for several minutes.
Judge Shannon O’Malley followed in 2024, after an Injustice Watch report raised questions about whether he met residency requirements. Years earlier, he had run unsuccessfully in Will County as a Republican named Phillip Spiwak, then reemerged in Cook County as a Democrat running under a new name.
Injustice Watch staff contributed reporting to this story.
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