Insert Clever Ballot Series Name Here

By Sam Bakken in News on Oct 18, 2004 6:29PM

We'll start this little ballot guide off with some information on the retention campaigns of judges on this year's ballot.

The people of Illinois elect judges for six year terms. When a judge has served their six years, they then run for retention. A retention election puts the candidates name on a ballot and people vote yes or no on retention for that candidate. The retention candidate then must receive 60% of the vote (or yeses) in order to retain their seat. No judge has been voted off the judicial island since 1990.

This year 74 judges are running for retention. That's a lot of judges. Three of them are running for retention in the appellate court and the rest are running for retention in Cook County Circuit Court. At voteforjudges.org, a site sponsored by a variety of law and public advocacy groups, they've collected recommendations from eight Chicago-area bar associations. Only two judges receive a "not recommended" vote across the entire panel of eight. Those two judges are Dorothy F. Jones and Susan Jeanine McDunn.

We'll start this little ballot guide off with some information on the retention campaigns of judges on this year's ballot.

The people of Illinois elect judges for six year terms. When a judge has served their six years, they then run for retention. A retention election puts the candidates name on a ballot and people vote yes or no on retention for that candidate. The retention candidate then must receive 60% of the vote (or yeses) in order to retain their seat. No judge has been voted off the judicial island since 1990.

This year 74 judges are running for retention. That's a lot of judges. Three of them are running for retention in the appellate court and the rest are running for retention in Cook County Circuit Court. At voteforjudges.org, a site sponsored by a variety of law and public advocacy groups, they've collected recommendations from eight Chicago-area bar associations. Only two judges receive a "not recommended" vote across the entire panel of eight. Those two judges are Dorothy F. Jones and Susan Jeanine McDunn.

In their report, The Chicago Council of Lawyers, one of only two organizations that offer reasons for their "not recommended" votes, says McDunn "unfairly and inappropriately attempted to exploit her authority in the legal system to advance her own personal beliefs, at the substantial expense of the litigants." This statement refers to an adoption case in which two same-sex couples were involved in an, up to that point, uncontested adoption. She appointed a known anti-gay group as another party in the case to argue against these adoptions despite positive and favorable pre-adoption investigations.

The Chicago Bar Association, the other organization that offers explanation, says McDunn "...failed to demonstrate to the Committee that she possesses the requisite legal knowledge and ability to continue serving as a Circuit Court Judge." Ouch!

The CCL said Jones is "...indecisive and [has] demonstrated poor judicial temperament," in her more than ten years on the bench. The CBA gave Jones an automatic "not recommended" because she refused to cooperate with their judicial evaluation process.

While other judges receive an "NR" here and there from one or another bar association on the VoteForJudges.org site, there are no explanations. The site criticizes groups that in the past have told people to vote yes on every judge. Well, we think voting no without any reason is the same as voting yes without any reason, so we'll stick with the CBA and CCL's recommendations, if any at all.

The CBA also gave Dennis J. Morrissey and William D. O'Neal "not recommended" ratings. They don't recommend Morrissey because of their concerns over his "punctuality and his ability to rule and render decisions in a timely matter." At one point the Supreme Court issued a ruling that required Morrissey to make a decision that he'd dawdled on.

With O'Neal, they say he has the proper temperment for the bench and a desire to be fair, but like McDunn, they do not recommend O'Neal because they say he, "does not possess the requisite legal knowledge and ability to serve as a Circuit Court Judge."

Intrestingly, the CCL agrees with the CBA on O'Neal but contradicting them on O'Neal's temperment saying that, "a significant number of lawyers complain about his temperament and impatience on the bench." However, the CCL found Morrissey qualified for retention stating that he "has adequate legal ability and a good temperament."