From the Tribune

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January 25, 2008
CAMPAIGN 2008
2 Kane judicial subcircuits to see first elections
Judicial contests draw 9 candidates
By William Presecky | Tribune reporter
January 25, 2008
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Billed largely as a way to boost opportunities for minorities to be elected to the bench, the subcircuit system for filling judicial vacancies was started in the early 1990s in Cook County and expanded by the legislature to the far west suburban 16th Judicial Circuit in 2005.
Now nine candidates in the Elgin and Aurora areas are vying for four partisan nominations in the November race, the first election involving two of the circuit's five new subcircuits. To winnow the field, voters on Feb. 5 will be asked to pick from an array of Republican and Democratic candidates, including two current Kane County Board members.
The 16th Circuit, which includes Kane, Kendall and DeKalb Counties, was apportioned by state law into five geographical judicial subcircuits that, for election purposes, come into play in numerical order as judicial vacancies occur.
The 1st Subcircuit, in southeastern Kane County, includes parts of Aurora, North Aurora and Montgomery. The 2nd Subcircuit is in the county's far northeastern corner, including Elgin, East Dundee, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow and Carpentersville.
Compared with "traditional" circuitwide judicial campaigns in which candidates have to canvass three counties, subcircuit campaigns can be much more concentrated and economical to manage.
"A byproduct of this is that, theoretically, the voters in that subcircuit will get to know the candidates better because they will be seeing them more often," said Chief Judge Donald Hudson.
"It allows too, perhaps, for a more upfront and personal campaign," Hudson said. "I've heard that...a lot of the candidates are going door to door, which is virtually impossible in a three-county race," he said.
Voters, meanwhile, "will still have the same traditional considerations in assessing a candidate that you would have in any other judicial race," Hudson said. "They will be looking at the results of bar [association] polls, attending various forums and talking to police officers and people who work in the courthouse," he said.
Two nominations, one in each of the subcircuits in play Feb. 5, are virtually assured for lack of competition.
Defense attorney Fred Morelli Jr., 66, of Aurora, is unopposed for the Republican nomination in Kane's 1st Judicial Subcircuit, in the Aurora area. Financial attorney John Noverini, 49, of Carpentersville, is unchallenged for the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Subcircuit, in the Elgin area. Twice elected to the Kane County Board as a Republican, in 2002 and 2006, Noverini switched party affiliation in September.
Depending on the outcome of the GOP primary in the 2nd Subcircuit, Noverini will compete for election in November with either Circuit Judge Patricia Piper Golden or former two-term Kane County State's Atty. David Akemann.
Golden, 57, of Dundee Township, was an associate judge from 1996 until November 2006, when she was appointed a full circuit judge to fill a vacancy. The first woman elected as a state's attorney in Illinois, in Carroll County, Golden has been an assistant prosecutor in Kane, Carroll and Ogle Counties and was director of the Kane County Child Advocacy Center for the first two years of its existence.
After 10 years as an assistant state's attorney, Akemann, 56, of Elgin, was elected Kane County state's attorney in 1992 and in 1996 but defeated in March 2000 in his bid for a third consecutive term. Since leaving elective office more than seven years ago, Akemann has worked as an assistant Illinois attorney general and as a commissioner for the Illinois Industrial Commission.
He made an unsuccessful, countywide bid for circuit judge in the March 2006 GOP primary.
Morelli, of Aurora, is a former associate judge. He will face the winner of the five-way race for the Democratic nomination in the judicial subcircuit that is centered on the city.
Attorney Paul Greviskes, 56, is a 17-year member of the Kane County Board and its ranking Democrat.
Greviskes joins private attorney Jim Murphy, 56, as one of two current elected officials vying for the Democratic nomination. Murphy was elected Aurora Township supervisor in 1997.
Rounding out the Democratic field are veteran criminal defense attorney Herb Hill, 66, private attorney Renee Robinson, 52, and Mark Wade, 50, a Kane assistant state's attorney. All five Democrats live in Aurora.