Low voter turnout in some primarily black Chicago wards appeared to bolster the hopes of Cook County Chief Judge Harry Comerford Tuesday as 47 appellate and circuit judges ran to keep their jobs.
Returns in judicial races were slow in coming, but reports of low turnout in some city wards was viewed as helping a large majority of judges seeking to retain their positions.
Ordinarily, it is rare for judges to lose retention elections. This year, uncertainty ran high over the fates of Comerford and other retention judges after a coalition of minority-group representatives voiced dismay with the number of blacks on the bench and targeted Comerford for defeat.
Besides the retention races, voters also decided one contested race for the Appellate Court, 21 contested vacancies for the Circuit Court in Cook County and a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court from the 5th Judicial Circuit in southern Illinois.
The outcome of the Downstate race between Democrat Horace L. Calvo and Republican Thomas Welch will determine the partisan makeup of the state`s high court when, in all likelihood, it has final say in drawing new congressional and legislative districts after the 1990 census. Democrats now hold a 4-3 majority on the state`s highest court.
Calvo, 61, the chosen candidate of St. Clair County Democratic chieftain Jerry Costello, and Welch, 49, both sit on the Appellate Court in the district, which stretches across a 37-county area.
The winner replaces Democratic Justice Joseph Cunningham, who was appointed to the court to fill a vacancy caused by the retirement of Joseph Goldenhersh.
Welch tried to focus his campaign on what he described as his independence from special-interest groups, marked by his refusal to take contributions from lawyers, normally the prime source of campaign funding. Calvo weathered a primary battle that disclosed that he did not hold a law degree, having passed the state bar examination in 1956 when such a degree was not required.
The race`s significance was underlined by the interest of the United Republican Fund. It had promised to contribute $25,000 to Welch, citing the importance of political balance on the court in the likely event it reviews the redrawing of the electoral districts in the state.
Comerford, chief judge of the nation`s largest single court system since 1978, was targeted for defeat in the waning days of the campaign by about 24 minority-group organizations and politicians, including Jesse Jackson.
Under the Illinois Constitution, incumbent Circuit Court judges must seek retention-that is, run without any opposition-every six years and must receive 60 percent of the vote to keep their seats.
The battle against Comerford, which split the black community, also concerned many of the 46 other judges on the retention ballot. They feared the prospect of voters registering blanket opposition.
Comerford had the support of several black Democratic commiteemen, including Mayor Eugene Sawyer. But Aldermen Danny Davis (29th) and Tim Evans
(4th) opposed him.
The essence of complaints against Comferford is that he long ignored pleas to assign minorities to positions of status within the court system and that he failed to do as much as he could to improve the number of minorities on the bench.
Currently, 21 of 172 full Circuit Court judges are black, or 11.5 percent, and 29 of 205 associate associate judges are black, or 14 percent. Blacks make up about 26 percent of the county population.
Comerford also was criticized for failing to do enough to stem corruption uncovered during the federal government`s Operation Greylord investigation, though the bulk of illegal acts occurred before his tenure.
The Chicago Council of Lawyers was among those criticizing Comerford for failing to act with more dispatch, but it gave him a qualified rating. The county`s largest bar organization, the Chicago Bar Association, found Comerford highly qualified.
Other retention judges who were targeted for defeat in some circles included Circuit Judges Arthur J. Cieslik, Michael Close and Donald Joyce.
Cieslik was reprimanded by the Ilinois Courts Commission for sexist comments to women attorneys and was found unqualified by both the Chicago Bar Association and the Chicago Council of Lawyers.
Close was the subject of serious allegations of judicial misconduct relating to Greylord. Former Downstate Judge Brocton Lockwood, working undercover for the FBI, testified that a judge later identified as Close receive an envelope from Ira Blackwood, a former Chicago police officer who was convicted of bribery and extortion. Blackwood later told Lockwood that Close was upset because it did not contain enough money.
Joyce came under fire for a pattern of acquittals and extremely light sentences while sitting in Criminal Court. Greylord-related allegations also have been made against him, involving testimony under oath from Martin Schachter, an attorney convicted in Greylord, that he made payments to Joyce. While lower black turnouts in the city, as well as strong suburban turnouts, may have been a boon to Comerford, there was not necessarily similar, early solace for Cieslik, Close and Joyce.
Early indications was that turnout among independents and suburbanites was strong. Those two groups tend to closely follow newspaper and bar association recommendations-potentially bad news for the three judges.
Another hotly contested judicial race occurred in Du Page County where Bob Thomas, former place-kicker for the Chicago Bears, was opposed by Democrat Gregory Freerksen.
Critics of Thomas said the former sports celebrity lacked the necessary experience to sit on the bench. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1981.
