Stumped On Judges? Nonprofit Gives Info On Judicial Contests

From The Center Square:

By Cole Lauterbach

Some voters know who they’re voting for in the presidential election and some know what lawmakers they support, but few have done the homework to know which way to vote in local judicial elections.

For that reason, a nonprofit legal reform group has amassed a database of the basic public information on each judicial candidate that will show up on any Illinois ballot.

One of the judges who doesn’t get an endorsement warns of the group’s affiliations.

The Illinois Civil Justice League unveiled IllinoisJudges.net this week. It allows voters to look at each option that would be on their ballot, see what the candidate’s current profession is, as well as if the nonprofit recommends them. It also shows polls of what members of the Illinois State Bar Association think of the candidate.

The highest-profile race of the cycle is whether or not to retain Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride in the 3rd District, which stretches from the Quad Cities east to Kankakee. ICJL President John Pastuovic says the judge shouldn’t get another decade on the bench.

“Illinoisans need and deserve an independent Supreme Court and Kilbride accepting that level of financial contribution from a small cohort of donors is disqualifying. For that reason, we strongly urge the voters of the Third District to vote NO on Kilbride’s retention,” Pastuovic said.

Kilbride’s campaign spokesman shot back at Pastuovic’s comments Thursday.

“The Illinois Civil Justice League is a front for partisan special interest groups seeking to advance the interest of wealthy donors and voters should be suspicious of their recommendations and intentions,” said spokesman Ryan McLaughlin. “By contrast, Justice Kilbride has a long record as an impartial jurist who has spent his career working to increase transparency and access so that everyone gets a fair shot, regardless of means. That’s why the Illinois State Bar Association, the state’s preeminent nonpartisan legal group, recommended a ‘Yes’ vote for Kilbride, who they noted ‘has championed access to justice for all’ during his time on the court.”

McLaughlin said Kilbride’s integrity, thoughtfulness and respect for the law has won him the support of a large bipartisan coalition, including Republicans Gov. Jim Thompson, who backed Kilbride before his recent death, former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justices Ben Miller and Robert Thomas, former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner, former United States Attorneys Anton Valukas and Dan Webb and former Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross.

Leading the opposition to Kilbride’s retention is Jim Nowlan, director of Citizens for Judicial Fairness.

"Tom Kilbride cannot be trusted as an independent interpreter of the law when he has taken millions from Madigan and his allies in his campaigns, including $550,000 this year after promising not to take a single penny,” Nowlan said. “Kilbride is in Madigan's pocket, and if we want to end Madigan's reign over Illinois, it starts with ending Tom Kilbride's time on the Illinois Supreme Court."

The other high-profile judicial race ICJL has suggested a candidate be rejected is Judy Cates, Democratic candidate to replace Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier, who retired.

Cates had built a campaign war chest that Pastuovic said should make voters question her allegiances.

“Trial lawyers from Chicago and all across the country are making their preference for Cates known by donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to her campaign. Cates is using those funds in an attempt to present a homespun, down-home image, ICJL said in a release.

The ICJL has opposed many measures that benefit trial lawyers, lax rules on jurisdictions that allow for asbestos complaints from elsewhere to be heard in Illinois for instance. This often puts the group at odds with the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Cates is a former ITLA president.

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