July 30, 2025
IT'S DEJU VU ALL OVER IN CABONARGI'S JUDGESHIP COMEBACK
Ignorance is bliss and blessed are those who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed. Cook County’s 5.19 million residents and 3,139,913 registered voters (RVs) are blissfully ignorant of how their judicial system works, how judges are made and how difficult and costly it is to get on the bench.
That’s because more than 95 percent of Cook Countians never commit crimes and interact with the criminal justice system and/or are never victims of torts and get involved in civil litigation. But if they do there’s a judge on the bench who decides your fate. How and why they got there never occurs to anybody. They are just there. Supreme Court justices bank $298,910 annually, appellate court judges make $281,331, circuit court judges $258,158 and associate judges $245,250, according to Illinois Courts.
I was an attorney for 44 years until I retired in 2022. I’ve been around the proverbial block too many times to remember, been in every courthouse in Cook and the collar counties, and appeared before close to 3,000 judges. I can authoritatively state that very few judges were nice/warm/sweet/kind/gentle/compassionate/caring/brilliant/learned/well-informed/patient – and all the while wondering why they wanted their job and have to listen to endless crap from lawyers and defendants who don’t know when to shut up.
Those judges were neither the worst of the worst nor the best of the best. They were lawyers weary of the rigors of a law practice and chasing clients to get paid or career prosecutors/public defenders eager to advance (and pad their pension). A judge’s workload is not especially onerous, with 5 week’s paid vacation, all holidays off, and health benefits for life. They simply knew how to game the system and paid the price – which is $45,000 to county Democrats (CCDP) to be slated. That buys 10,000 petition signatures, your name on the March 17 primary sample ballot, media advertising and a mailing into every Democratic household.
Sort of like alcoholics in AA, there is a 5-step process to become a county judge.
STEP ONE: Don’t ever vote Republican (or run as one). I know that for a fact. I ran for judge in the Northwest Side/suburban 10th subcircuit in 1994 and 1998 – and lost by more than 55/45 each time. I could have run as a Democrat but after decades of bashing them in this column it would have been dishonest, hypocritical and opportunistic.
STEP TWO: Register as a Democrat early in life, always vote early and often in Democratic primaries and donate constantly and generously (like 2 grand-plus a year) to some Democrat (even nationally) or a ward/township organization. Attach yourself to some “sugar daddy” who knows judicial politics, whether it be some politician, networking group or bar association. The top dog is Oak Park committeeperson, IL Senate president and CCDP judicial evaluation chair Don Harmon. Like Ed Burke before him, he picks the judges and supplicants are always welcome to donate to his Senate campaign fund.
STEP THREE: Keep your nose clean. Don’t get into any ethically-challenged disciplinary Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission scrapes and get good bar ratings – like HQ and Q (Qualified). There are dozens of bar groups, from LGBTQ, women, Greek, Jewish, Black, Asian, Muslim, Hispanic, and geographic, and you must grovel before each. CCDP, to its credit, slates nobody with any NQs from any bar.
STEP FOUR: Be prepared to waste time and money. Show up at endless party functions, suck up and buy tickets.
STEP FIVE: Accept the outcome. If slated and a loser, there’s no second chance. If not slated, then wait your turn. And get on the bench while you’re in your 40s.
The breakthrough year for female Democrats was 1992 with Carol Moseley Braun nominated for senator and a slew of women winning county judgeships. Prior thereto the bench was crammed with old White guys chosen because of their ethnicity and/or their sponsor’s political clout. The LESSON of 1992 and every primary thereafter up through the 2020s is that a woman always beats a man in a low-information judge primary race where aspirants are largely unknown and the gender/name is all the liberal voters have to go on.
When multiple females ran the male candidate always won. So women created an informal network designed to limit women to just one per race and get 5-6 women on one nominating petition so as to more easily and jointly gather the needed 10,000 signatures.
The Cook County Democratic Party wisely reacted by slating more women and minorities and backing local subcircuits to elect judges. This was resoundingly successful as it limited the number of countywide slots and reduced the number of men who got beat. The CCDP also pioneered the concept of “alternates” who are not slated 90 days before the filing deadline (which is Nov. 2 for 2026) but will be on the slate (and petitions procured) if a sitting judge retires within those 90 days.
And any political observer has to be brain-dead to not know the Dems picked 9 Circuit alternates and 3 Appellate alternates BECAUSE there will be at least a half-dozen retirements in late October . That gives any challenger 2 weeks, not 3 months, to get 10,000 signatures. Another lesson: Alternates always win, usually unopposed. And another lesson; Alternates have to promise NOT to run in the cycle (2026) with the understanding that they’ll get preference in the next cycle (2028).
There are currently only four countywide vacancies for 2026 and there can only be more if judges elected in the past countywide retire. The IL Supreme Court (ISC) appoints interim judges. There are 230-elected judges in the county, of which 175 were elected in subcircuits, which number 20 districts with about 255,000 people. Under the Democrats’ 2022 “reform” 5 new subcircuits were created and 2 judges each cycle will be elected from each. This number (10) will be deducted from the pool of associate judges who are chosen by a periodic vote of the elected circuit judges. There are 10-12 judges in the old 15 districts and are replaced only when a subcircuit vacancy arises.
In the crosshairs next March is Judge Mike Cabonargi who was appointed by the ISC this year. He will be atop the Circuit ballot and is the only White guy slated. The others are Judge Tony Thedford, Ava George Stewart, and Luz Maria Toledo. It is a certainty that one or more women – and definitely a Black candidate with Irish-surnames will take on him (but not the others). Cabonargi can win ONLY if he has multiple opponents.
Cabonargi is of Italian ancestry and is a wealthy lawyer living in Wilmette. But it is a fact that “ethnic” surnames do not sell well in Dem primaries anymore – especially those of the Polish, Italian, German, East European and, lately, Jewish variety. An ethnic name is suffused with “whiteness” and “maleness.”
It is a fact that Democratic primary turnout – which was 487,851 in 2022 and 496,408 in 2024 in the county is heavily skewed to the Left. Over 55 percent are women. Between 33-36 percent are Black and of that 60 percent are female. About a quarter of voters are congenital Democrats with some ties to the status quo and vote the party sample ballot. Another quarter are conscientious and do research and check bar ratings. That last half vote for a name they like. Overall, it takes just 250,000 votes to win a Dem nomination or just 8 percent of the county’s RVs. If hardcore “progressive” they vote for a woman over a man; it’s a matter of gender guilt. And a Black-sounding name or Irish surname over an ethnic name; it’s a matter of racial guilt.
Cabonargi was appointed to Joe Berrios’s Board of Review vacancy in 2010. He got defeated in 2022 by an unknown woman (Samantha Steele) despite his stellar record as a BOR commissioner in a district encompassing the literate North Shore suburbs and north Lakefront. 2026 looms as déjà vu all over.
Read more Analysis & Opinion from Russ Stewart at Russstewart.com
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