BY MIKE CETERA
The Illinois Civil Justice League has a nice Web site set up that gives the rundown on judicial elections throughout the state, including the two new subcircuits created in the 16th Judicial Circuit.
The site includes biographies and responses to the league's questionnaire.
The 1st subcircuit includes Aurora, North Aurora, and the east sides of Batavia and Geneva. The league published a poll of Illinois State Bar Association members, which rated the candidates. The poll, which is sometimes criticized for its limited response, resulted in high marks for three of the five Democrats as well as the lone Republican on the ballot.
The 2nd subcircuit includes the northeast corner of Kane County, including Elgin, South Elgin and Carpentersville. The bar poll was not available on the site.
1st subcircuit poll results:
DEMOCRATS:
Jim Murphy -- 83.74 percent of respondants said he "meets requirements."
Mark Wade -- 78.29 percent
Paul L. Greviskes -- 73.53 percent
Herb Hill -- 37.08 percent
Renne L. Robinson -- 29.03 percent
REPUBLICANS:
Fred M. Morelli, Jr. -- 67.13 percent
Any candidate receiving 65 percent or more "yes" responses meets acceptable requirements for the office and is rated as recommended, according to the bar association.
Certainly this site is helpful for anyone who wants to learn a bit about the candidates before the Feb. 5 primary. But my guess is most voters will enter their polling place knowing little, if anything, about these races.
The media certainly should share in the blame for this; judicial elections simply don't get much coverage. Yet, the very nature of these races also makes it difficult for anyone to get any helpful information prior to Election Day. I want to know how a candidate would apply the law in X situation. No candidate is going to give you that answer.
Instead we learn biographical information and party affiliation. I'm not sure how much this helps.
In a 2006 story, the president of the Kane County Bar Association pointed out that Illinois picks its judges differently than most other states.
Illinois is among only 10 states in the nation that continue to have judges run in partisan elections, said Michael Doyen, president of the Kane County Bar Association. Other states have separate judicial elections, and some have a merit system or appointment system, he said.
Is it time to think of a different way to select our judges?
The election process does not necessarily need to be "ditched". What needs to be ditched is this fiction that judicial candidates should not talk about their views.
We have a form of merit selection. The associate judges are appointed by the circuit judges, you decide.