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Cook County Democratic Primary March 19th [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-03-01  

Several times since 2016 I’ve written diaries about Illinois downballot elections, focusing on Judicial Retention elections (my theory is that these are the most ignored races, but the results can be very important).

Now comes the Democratic primary on March 19th, and there are some Judicial races on the ballot, though I don’t see any “Retention” issues (I think that will be in November).

This time I have a new resource, which is Injustice Watch. I picked the 9th Judicial District, which covers the North Shore lakeshore suburbs (where I live), and also Rogers Park in Chicago, so I got the races that are applicable there. If you live elsewhere in Cook County, you can go to the website above to see your choices (the differences will be in the circuit court nominees). All the candidates are Democrats, of course, and most of my selections have been endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party.

For the 9th Judicial District, there are seven contested races. Here are my recommendations for these seven (though your mileage may vary—click through to the above site for more details on all candidates):

Supreme Court (Burke): Joy Virginia Cunningham

Active in Women's Health Care, including stint with Planned Parenthood; wrote opinion ordering a new trial for Michael Winston, which resulted in his being exonerated from a previous murder conviction (his brother did it).

Appellate Court (Cunningham): Cynthia Y. Cobbs

Wrote ruling against Mayor Raymond Emanuel that emails and texts of public officials are public records.

Appellate Court (Delort Vacancy): Celia Louise Gamrath

Handle several prominent cases, including refusal to declare cash bail unconstitutional (because she lacked jurisdiction), and affirmed Chicago Police Board decision to fire an officer for falsifying records in the shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Circuit Court (Flanery, Jr. vacancy): Pablo F. deCastro

Defense lawyer including a spell as a public defender.

Circuit Court (Mitchell vacancy): Neil Cohen

Presided in case requiring Chicago to provide phones for arrestees to call their lawyers and families, and in a case requiring Joe Berrios to release records on how property values were determined.

Circuit Court (Murphy vacancy): Lori Ann Roper

Career Cook County Public Defender

Circuit Court (Propes vacancy): Debjani “Deb” Desai

Founded Community Legal Aid center at Indo-American Center; volunteer with Battered Women’s Network







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