December 23, 2015
ARENA, "COOKE'S LAW," HIGHLIGHT KEY SUBCIRCUIT JUDICIAL ROCKS

ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART

by RUSS STEWART

Alderman John Arena (45th), a council gadfly and critic of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has a legion of detractors. They deem him to be insufferable, imperious, and suffused with delusions of grandeur.

There are some others, of a more malicious bent, who hope that he marries their ex-wife.

Nevertheless, a majority of the Northwest Side 45th Ward’s voters don’t concur. They elected him alderman twice, in 2011 and 2015, and Democratic committeeman once, in 2012; he is unopposed for committeeman in 2016. His base in the 45th Ward is firm, if not solid. Over time, having Arena as their alderman has become more tolerable, and less repugnant.

The 2016 Democratic primary for Circuit Court judge in the area’s 10th subcircuit, however, will determine if Arena has any “legs” outside his ward.

Of Cook County’s 380 judges, 85 are elected countywide; 157 are elected from the 15 subcircuits; and 138 are “associate” judges, appointed by the elected judges, who serve 4-year terms. Only the elected judges face a “retention” election every 6 years.

The “subcircuit” concept was hatched by a coalition of blacks, Hispanics and Republicans back in 1991, so as to facilitate the election of more minorities and Republicans to the bench. Now, instead of county Democratic bosses picking the slate, invariably composed of Irish-surnamed males, with a few token ethnics, two-thirds of the judges are anointed by the local Democratic bosses, meaning committeemen. Occasionally, an unannointed lawyer slips through.

Of the 15 subcircuits, four had (and still have) black majorities, and two a Hispanic majority; as for Republicans, they expected to safely elect judges in four, and are now down to one, in the far west suburbs. Each subcurcuit is composed of 10-11 judges, elected over time to 6-year terms since 1992. An election is had only when an elected subcircuit judge retires, or when a new judgeship is mandated. Once elected, a subcircuit judge stands for retention countywide, not in the subcircuit. If a subcircuit judge moves outside his or her district, then they forfeit their post. Aurie Pucinski won the 10th subcircuit in 2004, and then moved Downtown; she had to run countywide for a vacant seat in 2006, which she won. Pucinski is now on the Appellate Court.

The 10th subcircuit covers most of Chicago’s northwest side, plus parts of Park Ridge and Rosemont, extending westward from Ravenswood in the 47th Ward. There are 229 Chicago precincts, with the bulk in the 45th Ward (48), 41st Ward (42), 39th Ward (45), 47th Ward (46) and 40th Ward (26); there are 65 suburban precincts. Since its creation in 1992, it has elected only Democrats. Republicans no longer bother to field candidates. (Note: This columnist ran twice for the seat, as a Republican, and lost.)

Justice is not blind, judgeships do not alight upon the fittest, and a committeeman likes to brag that he “made” a judge. The 10th subcircuit’s major Democratic committeemen have had a longstanding pact: The pick for each subcircuit vacancy rotates among them. 2016 is Arena’s turn. His candidate for the Howard vacancy is Stephanie Saltauros, an assistant state’s attorney who lives in Gladstone Park; she was “slated.” Also running are Judge Eve Marie Reilly, appointed by the state Supreme Court to Garret Howard’s vacancy, who sits in Traffic Court; Colleen Reardon Daly, a former assistant state’s attorney now in private practice; Mike Malatesta, of Park Ridge, a private attorney whose father Ken was a former chief deputy state’s attorney, and lost a bid for the top job in 1992; Rick Cenar, an attorney with ties to former alderman Pat Levar; and Timothy McQuillen, a private attorney.

The common presumption is that Irish-surnamed candidates, especially females, have an edge, especially in a district with lots of Irish-Americans, like the 10th. But that was disproved in 2014, when the slated Anthony Kyriakopoulos, Alderman Pat O’Connor’s 40th Ward pick, beat an Irish-surnamed female, Katherine O’Dell, 7,806-6,409, in a low turnout of 14,215. In the past, Greek surnames were fatal, so Saltauros can take some cheer. But turnout will be 40 percent higher in 2016, with a lot of women coming out to vote for Hillary Clinton.

The advantage to being slated lies in the fact that the slatee’s name appears on the “sample ballot” printed and distributed by each ward committeeman. The disadvantage is that, excepting the 39th Ward, none of the committeemen have the in-precinct manpower to get blanket coverage of their flyers, and, quite bluntly, most voters don’t care squat about who their committeeman endorses. But there is a loyal core, perhaps 25 percent, comprised of jobholders, their families, election judges, and friends of the alderman/committeeman, who vote as they’re told.  

The outlook: Arena’s enemies won’t be Saltauros’s friends. To nominate Saltauros, Arena needs 50 percent of the vote in his home 45th Ward, which will cast roughly 10,000 votes in the March 15 primary; in the April 2015 runoff, turnout was 15,751. Anti-Arena voters, if aware of his support for Saltauros, will make an effort to vote for somebody else.

The 39th Ward is a particularly sticky situation. The Laurino Machine is under siege, and Arena is persona non grata. Alderman Marge Laurino’s nephew, State Representative John D’Amico (D-15), faces a difficult contest with anti-noise activist Jac Charlier, and Charlier’s ally, Robert Murphy, who ran against Laurino for alderman in 2015 (getting 42.8 percent), is now running for committeeman. Murphy is from Forest Glen, and was an Arena buddy before the 2011 remap moved Forest Glen into the 39th Ward. Murphy faces Pat Molloy, who was appointed committeeman when Laurino’s husband, Randy Barnette, quit the job in September.

The Charlier-Murphy operation will be pushing Saltauros, but the Laurino Machine definitely won’t. They’ll likely back Reilly.

The 41st Ward is another quagmire. Committeeman Mary O’Connor, having lost her alderman seat, is quitting. New Alderman Anthony Napolitano is backing Andy DeVito for committeeman, and DeVito is backing Malatesta. The 40th and 47th wards will put Saltauros  on their sample ballots, but do little else. Daly shaves votes from Reilly. Cenar gets some votes in the 45th Ward. In a 6-candidate field, with three women and three men, the “gender vote” is diluted, and the “organization vote” could be enough.

Arena is on his own. If Saltauros wins, he’s a kingmaker; if she loses, especially if she finishes third or fourth, he’s a political eunuch.

In the largely Hispanic 6th subcircuit, where bosses are plentiful, picking judges is sort of like collecting baseball cards: I’ve got mine, you’ve got yours. The bosses in the subcircuit include former Alderman Dick Mell, the 33rd Ward committeeman; State Representative Luis Arroyo (D-3), the 36th Ward committeeman; and Assessor Joe Berrios, the 31st Ward committeeman. As a 2016 Yuletide bonus, they each get a judge under the Christmas tree. The subcircuit includes 269 Chicago precincts, distributed among 11 wards. Alderman Proco Joe Moreno (1st), a Berrios rival, has a chunk, as does Alderman Roberto Maldonado (26th). Three seats are up:

Santiago vacancy. Veteran attorney Richard Cooke, a Mell protégé, promised to accept no contributions for his judicial campaign, and then donated $500,000 to his campaign account. That was more than a “chilling effect.”  It was more like a thermos-nuclear explosion, vaporizing every prospective challenger. Thus was born “Cooke’s Law.” It works like this: Be a rich lawyer. Loan a half mil  to your campaign. Intimidate all opposition. Be unopposed. Put $450,000 back in your pocket. Spread $50,000 among the committeemen vultures. Get elected judge. It’s a no-brainer.

”A” vacancy: The Supreme Court appointed Anna Loftus to a new vacancy; she sits in Traffic Court and has no area political base. Arroyo’s guy, attorney Carlos Claudio, got slated; Claudio lost in 2014, getting 13.4 percent. Also running is Ed Underhill. Despite the tension between Berrios and Arroyo, both of whom want to be El Hombre Grande, Loftus’s prospects collapsed when another 6th District vacancy opened (see below). Both “Hombres” will back Claudio over Loftus.

Ponce de Leon vacancy: Given the convenient late retirement of the sitting subcircuit judge, an Arroyo-Berrios conflagration was avoided, as Big Daddy Joe staked claim to that vacancy, backing Evie DeLaRosa, a public defender; Moreno, however, supports Ricardo Lugo, who works in Clerk of Court Dorothy Brown’s office. Also running is Lori Ann Roper, a public defender. That sets up a Berrios-Moreno conflagration, which is especially nasty since Berrios engineered the candidacy of Maria Theresa Gonzalez, another public defender, against Moreno for committeeman.

In 2015, both Arroyo and Moreno allied to back Chuy Garcia for mayor, and Milly Santiago for alderman in the 31st Ward (she won). Berrios backed Emanuel, who lost the 31st Ward. In 2016, Arroyo is the gamemaker and gamebreaker. He has as many boots on the ground as Berrios. If Arroyo swings his support behind Lugo, and he wins, it will be another humiliation for Berrios.

A subtext to the 6th subcircuit races is a 33rd Ward committeeman challenge to Old Gringo by Aaron Goldstein, who ran for state representative in 2014 against Jaime Andrade, getting 10.8 percent. Goldstein was the defense lawyer in Rod Blagojevich’s second trial. His candidacy will make Dick Mell work harder.

E-mail Russ@russstewart.com or visit his website at www.russstewart.com.