Illinois Supreme Court 2nd District Primary Election Voters Guide

WAUKEGAN, IL — After last year's redrawing of judicial districts, two contested primaries for a rare open seat on the Illinois Supreme Court could tip the balance of the court for the first time in decades.

Three Democrats and four Republicans are squaring off amongst themselves to appear on the ballot in the five-county 2nd Judicial District for a shot at a 10-year term on the bench.

The Democratic Party could secure continued control of the court with a win in the district in November, while Republicans need to also win in the 3rd District to end the Democrats' 53-year-old majority on the state's highest court.

Races for the state's highest court are often quiet affairs, as sitting justices, who are often appointed by other judges, run unopposed in retention elections for 10-year terms. As long as less than 40 percent of people who vote in the election say "no", judges get to keep their seats.

But in 2020, for the first time in the Illinois Constitution's half-century history, a sitting state supreme court judge failed to meet the 60 percent "yes" threshold. With the help of more than $4 million in spending from the conservative group Citizens for Judicial Fairness, Justice Thomas Kilbride was ousted from his 3rd District seat, and the remaining judges picked Robert Carter to serve out the rest of his term.

With control of the governor's mansion and both houses of the Illinois General Assembly, Democrats sought to preserve their 4-3 advantage on the state supreme court by redrawing its districts.

Three justices are elected from the 1st District, comprised of Cook County, and the other four districts each elect one justice. The redistricted map reduces the size of the 2nd and 3rd judicial districts, which effectively equalizes the number of voters who elect a justice while also consolidating Republican voters in the 4th and 5th district.

The 2nd District now includes Lake, McHenry, Kane, DeKalb and Kendall counties and is the only contested primary Tuesday.

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The Candidates: 2nd Judicial District

Democrats

Two sitting judges and a mayor are running in the Democratic Party primary.

Rene Cruz, of Aurora, was first appointed to the bench in 2012 and was the first Hispanic judge in Illinois' 16th Judicial Circuit, according to his campaign website. He was born in Panama, the son of a career solider, and raised in two countries and four states. After graduating from Northern Illinois College of Law, Cruz spent 16 years in private practice, becoming a partner at the first that became known as the Law Offices of Gil & Cruz.

Cruz, 51, is endorsed by the Kane County state's attorney and clerk of circuit court, a current and former Kane County sheriff, two former Aurora police chiefs and several members of the Aurora City Council, according to his website. He is the largest donor to his campaign finance committee, followed by Meyers & Flowers LLC, Alex Romero and his former law firm.

Elizabeth Rochford, of Lake Forest, started her legal career as a Cook County prosecutor in the late 1980s before spending more than two decades as a solo practitioner and a commissioner of the Court of Claims.

Rochford, 61, also spent seven years as an administrative law hearing officer for municipalities before she was appointed to Lake County Circuit Court in 2012. She has been endorsed by more than a half-dozen state senators, Secretary of State Jesse White, various Lake County officials and unions such as the Illinois AFL-CIO, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881 and Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local No. 2.

Her campaign committee is the best funded of any of the candidates, with its largest donations coming from her husband, Michael Streidl, and political funds controlled by LIUNA Chicago Laborer's District Council, Illinois Federation of Teachers and UFCW.

Nancy Rotering, mayor of Highland Park since 2011, has touted her efforts to use the municipal code to ban assault-style rifles in the town, work with then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan to improve the ComEd electrical grid and founding of the Highwood-based North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic.

Rotering, 60, has previously run in Democratic Party primaries for U.S. Congress in Illinois' 10th District and for the Illinois Attorney General. Her campaign has been endorsed by the abortion rights groups Planned Parenthood Illinois Action and Personal PAC, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other Cook County and north suburban Democratic Party and municipal leaders.

Rotering is the largest donor to her own campaign finance committee by a margin of more than 4-1 margin. Her only other five-figure donations have come from Personal PAC, Rebecca Janowitz and Margaret Rodkin.

The Illinois State Bar Association rated Rochford "highly recommended," Cruz was "recommended" and Rotering was "not recommended."

Related: These 7 Candidates Want A Rare Open Seat On The Illinois Supreme Court

Republicans

Three sitting judges and a former sheriff are running for the Republican Party's nomination.

Mark Curran, of Libertyville, was Lake County sheriff from 2006 to 2018, when he lost out on election to a fourth term by fewer than 140 votes. In 2020, he won a five-candidate GOP senate primary and went on to receive 39 percent of the vote to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin's 55 percent.

Curran, 59, worked as a state prosecutor, assistant attorney general and attorney in private practice before first seeking elected office. He was first elected as a Democrat before switching to the Republican Party in 2008.

Curran's campaign has been strongly pro-life and anti-masonic. He has described himself as "not a conservative" and to the left end of the Republican Party when it comes to immigration and incarceration policies. His campaign finance reports indicate he has been running a bare-bones campaign.

Susan Hutchinson, of Crystal Lake, is the only appellate judge running in either party. After earning a law degree from DePaul University in 1977, Hutchinson spent four years as a prosecutor in McHenry County before she was appointed to the bench in 1981. She was elected as an appellate judge in 1994.

Hutchinson, 72, said she will face a minimal learning curve if elected and encouraged voters to review her lengthy record of written opinions to understand how she would approach the job of state supreme court justice.

Her campaign committee has been almost entirely self-funded and had not reported spending any money prior to the final pre-primary reporting deadline of April 1.

John Noverini, of Carpentersville, is in his fourth term as a circuit judge in Kane County, where he has presided over the family law, domestic violence/DUI/traffic court and probate, guardianship traffic and mental health courts, according to his website.

Noverini, 64, had a career in banking before becoming a judge, including co-founding a Sugar Grove bank where he served as a director from the time of its 1999 charter until his first campaign for a seat on the bench in 2008. He also served as a Republican precinct committeeman from 1996 to 2006 and was elected chairman of Dundee Township Republicans in 2004 and 2006.

After serving on the Kane County Board as a Republican, Noverini switched to the Democratic Party to run for judge in 2008. He later attributed the switch to the difficulty of winning as a Republican in the district. His political affiliation was still listed as "Democratic" on the statement of organization his campaign committee filed last year with the Illinois State Board of Elections. He is the largest contributor to his campaign fund, with over $24,000 in personal loans its only four-figure contributions since May.

Daniel Shanes, of Mundelein, was first appointed to the bench in 2007 before being retained by voters in 2012 and 2018. After graduating from law school and clerking for an appellate court for two years, he spent the rest of his legal career as a Lake County prosecutor before becoming a judge.

Shanes, 55, is currently the deputy chief judge of Lake County courts. He has been endorsed by the Lake County Republican Party, the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, former State Rep. Jeanne Ives, Illinois Senate GOP Leader Sen. Dan McConchie and several other state legislators.

His campaign committee has seen in influx of cash in the final weeks of the campaign. Since June 12, the Shanes campaign has received $20,000 from the Illinois Chamber PAC, $15,000 from Alan Spellberg, $10,000 from the Mundelein manufacturing company MacLean-Fogg and $40,000 from his wife, Irene.

The Illinois State Bar Association rated Hutchinson and Shanes "highly recommended," while Curran and Noverini were "not recommended."