From the Chicago Tribune

An idea fit for benching
--------------------January 2, 2005
It's a rare day when the good folks of Lake, Will and McHenry Counties would invite any political idea imported from Cook County.
But that's exactly what has happened, thanks to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who last year "invited" the idea of judicial subcircuits for those counties and rammed approval through the legislature.
Judicial subcircuits are a way of carving up a county so that some judges are elected by geography and local political clout rather than by qualification. Subcircuit candidates must reside within the geographic boundaries of their subcircuit and are selected only by voters who live within that subcircuit. Once elected, the subcircuit judges have the same powers as those elected countywide and can be placed in any division of the court.
In theory, this is a way to diversify the bench--politically, ethnically and racially. In reality, it's a boon for the party controlling the legislature.
It's a nice idea to allow voters to pick their judges. But it often produces bad results. When they're faced with dozens of candidates, voters usually lack the information needed to properly evaluate them. Part of the problem is that, to avoid an appearance of bias before a case is heard, judicial candidates are prohibited from talking about the specific issues they may face on the bench. Many independent-minded voters do make the effort to learn about the candidates, but those voters tend to be outgunned by the power of the Democratic organization.
Subcircuits have only made a bad system worse in Cook County. The most abysmally qualified judges, according to bar association ratings, usually hail from the subcircuits. That's because those who win are those who get slated by the dominant political party of that subcircuit. And those who get slated are picked because they are political puppy dogs and bonzo fundraisers for the party, rather than lawyers with distinguished records, even temperaments and independent minds.
A report conducted by the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice on Cook County's subcircuit system found that such judgeships often are sold to the highest bidders--or those who can raise $15,000 to $25,000 for the party. A candidate running without the blessing of the Cook County Democratic Party's Central Committee had less than a 6 percent chance of winning. One who got the committee's cherished nod, however, had better than a 68 percent chance of winning.
Republicans in coalition with minority Democrats pushed for such a system in Cook County, and with the legislature's blessing it started in 1992. Now Democrats are having a field day foisting subcircuits on Republican-majority counties. The legislature last spring voted to create them in Lake, Will and McHenry Counties. As early as this month, lawmakers could vote on extending them to Winnebago and Kane Counties, according to Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. "It's based on the success we've had in Cook County," he said.
Success, in this case, means the chance for Democrats to shore up their power base. A draft of the Democratic plan for Lake and Will Counties revealed last spring, according to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, showed subcircuits drawn to increase the likelihood that Democratic judges would be elected, but not necessarily minority judges.
Judicial elections in the collar counties tend to work better than in Cook because there are fewer candidates to sort out. But subcircuits will only make those judicial races more suspect. They will reduce the potential field of candidates and give local party bosses more influence over the results. The legislature doesn't need to breed any more party lap dogs for the bench.Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune