Stories about people running for judge, judges running for retention, and the process of judicial elections and appointments.
Who can run? Why are judicial elections partisan? How do I pick a judge who shares my values? Injustice Watch and WBEZ’s Curious City are teaming up to answer your questions about judicial elections.
Associate judges are picked by the elected circuit judges in a closed-door process that some say privileges political insiders.
Bill rushed through state legislature last week promises years of hyperlocal judicial races, which could make it easier to become a judge but might come at a cost to the Cook County Democratic Party.
Cook County Democrats slated 10 candidates and 12 alternates for judicial seats for the 2022 primary election.
A diverse lineup of judicial candidates courted the party’s central committee at the obscure “pre-slating” event.
“I’ve been splitting my time between the practice of law and being a city council member, and I have never been one to think that I would die in office,” Brookins said.
Former prosecutors dominate the roster of 22 new associate judges, who were selected last week by the county’s circuit judges.
Associate judges are chosen via a closed election that only Cook County’s 249 circuit court judges can vote in.
West Side Ald. Chris Taliaferro, a former police sergeant, wants a seat on the 11th judicial subcircuit, which covers parts of Chicago’s West Side and nearby suburbs.
While the state vacated Wayne Washington’s 1996 conviction for Marshall Morgan’s murder, he’s still fighting an uphill battle for an innocence certificate.