Never mind that the vacancy created when Judge David Delgado resigned was for the 6th subcircuit, a region on Chicago’s near north side, and Santiago’s home was in the 7th subcircuit, a region farther south.
Santiago, then a public defender, said she moved back into her parent’s house inside the subcircuit and won election to the vacancy the following year.
And so it goes in the murky world of Cook County subcircuits, a system devised two decades ago when African American, Hispanic and women legislators banded together with Republicans to shake up the system by dictating that at least some judges would come from subcircuits across the county that theoretically would be more representative of local communities.
It hasn’t necessarily worked out the way it was intended. Today there are indeed more women and people of color on the bench. But many factors beyond the subcircuit divisions — including the changing demographics of the legal profession — have helped spur that diversity.
(Part 1)
Full Article and Source:
Judging the Judges: Cook County’s Troubled Judiciary Elections System
3 comments:
"Crook" County needs more than election changes!
Cook County is in trouble at every level.
Cook County's. a wreck. Walla Walla and Pierce Counties in Washington state are horrifying too...Pierce has been hit hear and there, but not nearly enough...Walla Walla just runs amuck and is so brazen about it that they must truly fear no consequences. Then there's half of the Cal. Counties, Franklin's and Davidson in TN. Ayayay. When will these particularly invidious brand of criminal be done with their "hayday"! Speaking of which, how does one go about getting a list of perpetrators added to the NASGA watch list?
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