Bar associations offer judicial candidate recommendations
The state's oldest and largest bar associations have weighed in with recommendations for Cook County judicial candidates running in the Nov. 6 election.
The Illinois State Bar Association, whose 30,000 members make it Illinois' largest, rated as qualified all candidates running to fill countywide vacancies. For judges running for retention in Cook County, the ISBA recommends voting no on James M. Varga, Andrea M. Schleifer and Lionel Jean-Baptiste and yes for all other retention candidates.
The Chicago Bar Association, which has about 21,000 members, found all candidates running to fill countywide vacancies qualified or highly qualified. For judges running for retention, the CBA rated Lisa Ann Marino not recommended and other retention candidates as qualified.
For the Kennedy vacancy in the 11th subcircuit - which includes parts of Elk Grove, Maine, Norwood Park, Leyden, Proviso and Oak Park townships along with some Chicago neighborhoods - both associations found Joanne F. Rosado qualified.
For the Maki vacancy in the 12th subcircuit - which includes parts of Wheeling, Northfield, New Trier, Elk Grove and Maine townships - the ISBA rated David Studenroth and Joel Chupack qualified. The CBA rated Studenroth qualified and Chupack highly qualified.
The 13th subcircuit - which includes parts of Barrington, Palatine, Wheeling, Hanover Park and Schaumburg townships - has three vacancies. For the Crane vacancy, the ISBA found Gary William Seyring qualified and Ketki "Kay" Steffen highly qualified. The CBA found both candidates qualified.
For the Lawrence vacancy in the 13th subcircuit, the ISBA found Daniel Patrick Fitzgerald qualified and Shannon P. O'Malley not recommended. For the same vacancy, the CBA rated both candidates not recommended.
For the 13th subcircuit O'Donnell vacancy, the ISBA found both Christine Svenson and Samuel J. Betar III qualified. The CBA found Betar highly qualified and rated Svenson as not recommended.
Both the ISBA and the CBA recommended retaining Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke and Appellate Court judge Margaret Stanton McBride.
See isba.org/judicialevaluations and chicagobar.org/chicagobar/votejudges for printable ballot guides.