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Elizabeth Rochford Mary K. O’Brien
August 11th, 2022 Political Note #492
2022 General Election
The Illinois Supreme Court has a 4-3 Democratic majority. Different from statewide election in most states, the members of the Illinois Supreme Court are elected by districts. The First Judicial District, Cook County (Chicago), elects three justices. Each of the other four Judicial Districts elects a single justice.
These Notes are intended to encourage people to support Democrats. I urge people to send money. In this case, I urge only a few of you to send money. Illinois prohibits out of state contributions to judicial candidates. I urge readers in Illinois to send money to the Democratic candidates for Illinois’s Supreme Court regardless of their District. For the rest of you, I suggest an alternative. Send this Political Note to people you know in Illinois to encourage people who might not read these Political Notes to donate money to the Democratic Supreme Court judicial candidates.
Unlike Congressional districts, there is no requirement in Illinois to redistrict the Supreme Court districts every ten years. Democrats noticed that, with elections scheduled for District 2 and District 3, there was a possibility that the court could flip to 4-3 Republican (There are additional possibilities, but wait.). Democrats also noticed that it was almost 60 years since the Judicial Districts were redistricted.
The legislature redistricted the state Supreme Court districts.. They made no changes in District 1, but the other districts were adjusted to reflect population changes. The redistricting had a particular impact on Districts 2 and 3, reducing the size of District 2 and increasing the size of District 3.
In Illinois, there is a judicial election with two or more candidates only when there is a vacancy. When there is no vacancy, that is, when an elected Justice completes his or her 10 year term and wants to continue, the Justice goes before the voters without an opponent. He or she will be retained on the Supreme Court if the vote is 60% or more for retention.
The creation of a vacancy in District 2: Justice Robert R. Thomas, a Republican, would have completed his 10 year term after the 2020 election. He retired, instead, at the end of February in that year. The remaining members of the Court (That is who is responsible for replacements in Illinois.) appointed Michael J, Burke, another Republican. Too late for the 2020 election, he would remain in that seat until 2022 when the seat would become open and he could run for election in the District. Except, after redistricting, Michael J Burke no longer lived in Judicial District 2. He now lived in District 3. He could not run in District 2.
The creation of a vacancy in District 3: In 2020, Justice Thomas Kilbride, a Democrat, completed his 10 year term and was subject to a retention vote. He received more than half the vote, but less than 60% as the result of a well-funded Republican “dark money” group-led campaign which complained of his ties to the Illinois House Speaker. The Court replaced him with another Democrat, Robert Carter, who announced he would not run for election in 2022. Conveniently, Republican Michael J. Burke, having been redistricted into Judicial District 3 announced he would run to be elected to the Supreme Court from District 3.
Illinois has already had its 2022 primaries.
In District 2 in the Democratic Primary, Lake County (19th Circuit) Judge Elizabeth Rochford defeated Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering. In the Republican Primary Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran holds a narrow lead over Lake County (19th Circuit) Judge Dan Shanes.
In District 3 only one Democrat and only one Republican announced a candidacy. Democratic Appellate Court Judge Mary K. O’Brien will face current member of the Illinois Supreme Court and Republican Michael J. Burke.
Election of a Republican in both districts would flip the Illinois Supreme Court to 4-3 Republican. Election of one Republican and one Democrat would keep the 4-3 Democratic majority. Election of a Democrat in both districts would expand the Democratic majority to 5-2.
There’s more:
Democratic Justice Mary Jane Theis of District 1, who was elected in 2012, will face a retention vote. No one appears to be organizing opposition to her retention.
Republican Justice Rita B Garman of District 4, who was elected in 2002 and was retained in 2012, would have been eligible for a retention election. Instead, she announced her retirement. The Court has announced Appeals Court Judge Lisa Holder White, a Republican and the first Black woman to serve on the Court, as her replacement. An open election for that seat will be held in 2024.
District 2. The Democratic candidate seeking to flip District 2 to the Democrats is Judge Elizabeth Rochford. She is the daughter of a Chicago cop and a school teacher. She got both her BA and her JD at Loyola University of Chicago – not far from the Lake, southeast of the Rogers Park neighborhood and east of what has become Little India. Her first job was as a prosecutor – three years as an assistant state’s attorney. After that, she practiced law on her own. She was a sole practitioner for 23 years while also serving part-time as the Commissioner of the Court of Claims.
There are 16 Commissioners appointed by the Court of Claims. The Commissioners conduct trials, take evidence, and make confidential recommendation to the Court regarding claims of money damages or personal injury against a state agency or employee regarding compensation to victims of violent crime and to dependents of police officers, fire fighters, and members of the national guard killed in the line of duty. In 2005, she took on the additional part-time responsibility of an administrative law hearing officer for municipalities, judging whether or not a municipal code violation occurred and what the penalty should be. The City of Chicago has about 80 people doing this work. At the end of 2012, she was appointed a judge of Illinois’s 19th Circuit in Lake County.
A good indicator of a judicial candidate’s tendencies are those who endorse the candidate. Elizabeth Rochford lists endorsements in her website from many elected officials, many retired judges, and, an indicator, many unions. When she identifies issues, she expresses her intention to promote access to justice and to combat racial injustice.
When an official winner of the Republican primary is announced, she will probably be opposed by County Sheriff Mark Curran. He was the Republican nominee for the US Senate in 2020 against Dick Durbin, the 2ndhighest ranking Democrat in the Senate. Curran is a former prosecutor and former Democrat. He said scandals associated with former Governor Rod Blagojevich led him to leave the Democratic party for the Republicans. As a sheriff, he has been an advocate for prison reform. His vision of reform includes faith-based programming in prisons.
District 3. The Democratic candidate who intends to keep District 3 Democratic is Mary K O’Brien. She was born in Kankakee, south of Chicago. She grew up on a farm in Riddick – 30 minutes west of Kankakee. She attended Joliet Junior College and got her BA from Western Illinois University which is far enough west to be close to the Iowa border. Eight years later, in 1994, she got her JD from the University of Illinois, the flagship campus of the state university system.
Two years after she got her law degree, she defeated an incumbent Republican State Representative in a district that included part of Kankakee. After six years in that role, in 2003, Mary K. O’Brien was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Third District of the Illinois Appellate Court. She was elected to the court in 2004 and retained in 2014. Among those endorsing her to be elected to the Illinois Supreme Court is US Senator Dick Durbin.
Mary K O’Brien’s tendencies? Her father was a union metal worker. She is endorsed by numerous unions. In her community life, she was active supporting 4-H, served as Board Chair of AMITA St. Mary’s Hospital, and was a member of the County NAACP. She notes that she had political experience in her youth, supporting a family friend’s political candidacy. She has the support of numerous elected officials and retired judges. She is endorsed by Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, by the County Executive, and other county appointed officials including the County Regional School Superintendent
She is running against Justice Michael J. Burke, the justice appointed to serve from Judicial District 2 before redistricting. Justice Burke was born in Chicago, got his BA from Northern Illinois University and his JD from the law school at the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1984. In 1983, he began his work in the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office. By 1991, he was chief of the Special Prosecutions Unit. He went on to serve as a judge in the 18th judicial circuit. In 2008, he was appointed to the Appeals Court. In 2020, he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the 2nd District of the Illinois Supreme Court. Now running in District 3, his endorsements, in addition to elected officials, include sheriffs, state’s attorneys, and police unions. He is also endorsed by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce PAC. He takes particular pains to emphasize his “track record of prioritizing public safety and judicial independence.”
Ordinarily, I would finish up urging readers to donate to the Democratic candidate. Elizabeth Rochford and Mary K. O’Brien are certainly worth donating to. Of the four candidates, only Elizabeth Rochford has taken care to remind those who look at her website that judicial candidates cannot accept out of state donations. Unless you are in Illinois, don’t donate. You can send this Political Note to people you know in Illinois. Encourage them to donate to the Democratic candidates for the Illinois Supreme Court.
You can donate to Demcoratic candidates for Supreme Court in other states:
Justice Sam Ervin IV and Judge Lucy Noble Inman for North Carolina’s Supreme Court (Political Note #443)
Justice Jennifer Brunner and Judges Marilyn Zayas and Terri Jamison for Ohio’s Supreme Court (Political Note #444)
Justice Richard Bernstein and State Representative Kyra Harris Bolden for Michigan’s Supreme Court (Political Note #491)
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