|
ABOUT ILLINOIS JUDGES.NET: THE ICJL'S
OBJECTIVE
The Illinois Civil Justice League initiated
its first judicial candidates' website
during the 2000 judicial campaign and has
repeated -- and expanded -- the site in each
election cycle since. The name has changed
from Judges2000 to Judges2002 to Judges2004,
and finally to IllinoisJudges.net,
which we assume will remain the title for
years to come.
Our purpose is to help
Illinois
voters learn about judges and candidates for
judicial offices. Do the voters want and
need that information? We think so. More
than 60,000 visits were recorded during the
five-day period before, and including,
Election Day in 2002. The number of
candidates who participate has steadily
increased.
In an election year such as 2002, when all
six statewide offices in
Illinois
were on the ballot, and there was an
election for the United State Senate, and
all legislative and congressional offices
were at stake, the news media and others
generally overlooked judicial elections. The
field is not as large in 2008 (no U.S.
Senate, not all Illinois Senators) but it is
still large and undoubtedly, most of the
attention will be focused on the campaign
for President of the United States --
particularly if an Illinois candidate (such
as Sen. Barack Obama) or an Illinois native
(such as Sen. Hillary Clinton) is on the
ballot.
Yet the judges we elect in
Illinois
-- and we elect more judges than members of
the executive and legislative branches of
government combined -- have longer terms and
more power than all the other offices. They
can nullify what the other branches have
done.
The Illinois Civil Justice League does
not attempt to conceal its agenda:
The ICJL is a coalition of interests in
Illinois, including taxpayers,
consumers, small businesses, lawyers,
doctors, local governments, big
businesses, not-for-profit organizations
and individual citizens. They have
joined together to fight what we -- and
they -- believe are abuses in our civil
justice system.
We think there are too many lawsuits and
we think the litigation explosion is
costly to all Illinois citizens. We do
not want to limit the rights of any
potential victim of wrong-doing (all of
us fall in that category) but we don't
think the system is intended to make
anyone rich.
So while we are not hiding from our
philosophy, we believe Illinois voters
should learn as much as possible about
judges and judicial candidates and thus we
include as much information about ALL
candidates for the Illinois Supreme and
Appellate Courts as is possible, and as much
information about candidates for circuit
court seats as is reasonably possible.
The candidates for the Supreme and Appellate
Courts in 2002 were asked questions and
their responses, if they agreed to
participate, were included verbatim. The
same was true in 2004 and both candidates
for the Supreme Court in the Fifth District
-- yes, that included Democratic candidate
Gordon Maag -- who DID cooperate and we DID
include his statements unedited (except for
some typos which he agreed to allow us to
correct).
In some recent elections, some candidates --
of both political parties -- refused to
participate. Their refusal was stated and,
if appropriate, explained.
The ICJL's endorsements, made through our
Political Action Committee, were included,
but we also included the endorsements of
newspapers, the ratings of bar associations
and other groups. We included other
evaluations, even if they did not agree with
our position. We offered candidates an
opportunity to rebut our endorsement
We also included links to the websites of
all candidates, if they provided us with
links, so that voters could form their own
opinions.
Our plans for 2008 are the same. We already
have contacted all candidates and invited
them to compete our questionnaire. Some
will choose not to do so but that's fine.
It will be noted.
This site will expand as we progress through
the election cycle. It WILL be the
most comprehensive source of information
about judges and judicial candidates in
Illinois in 2008.
|