Illinois election: Democrats to keep majority on state's Supreme Court
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois Democrats appeared poised to maintain their partisan majority on the Illinois Supreme Court, fending off an attempt by Republicans to swing the balance of power on the state's highest court to the GOP for the first time in more than 50 years.
Two seats on the Illinois Supreme Court were up for election on Tuesday. Illinois is only one of eight states where voters decide who will serve on the state's highest court – and multiple vacancies are rare.
One is in the Supreme Court's Second District – composed primarily of northern and western collar counties. It includes Lake, McHenry, Kane, Kendall, and DeKalb counties. A vacancy there has former Republican Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran running against Lake County Judge Elizabeth Rochford, a Democrat.
Rochford declared victory for the Second District seat Tuesday night, and her campaign said Curran had called to congratulate her on the win.
With 95% of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning, Rochford was leading with 54.4% of the vote to Curran's 45.6%.
Meantime, the Third District race is a much closer contest
The Third District is composed of some southern and western collar and Central Illinois counties. It includes DuPage, Will, Kankakee, Iroquois, Grundy, LaSalle, and Bureau counties. Appointed incumbent Justice Michael Burke, a Republican, is being challenged by Democratic Illinois Appellate Justice Mary Kay O'Brien. Burke currently serves in the Second District, but was mapped into the new Third District when the court's district lines were redrawn following the 2020 Census.
With 94% of the votes counted as of Wednesday morning, O'Brien was leading with 50.6% of the vote, a margin of about 8,000 votes over Burke's 49.4%.
The Illinois Supreme Court currently has four justices who were elected as Democrats, and three who were elected as Republicans. That meant both Burke and Curran needed to win for Republicans to secure a majority on the state's highest court for the first time since 1969.
Democrats needed to win only one of the open seats to keep their control of the court. If O'Brien's lead holds, they would expand their Illinois Supreme Court majority to a 5-2 advantage over Republicans.
Political action groups and the candidates themselves have spent millions of dollars in the battle for the open seats.
"This is an incredibly consequential race," Northwestern University law professor David Shapiro told CBS 2 last month. "State supreme courts have an incredible amount of power."
This is why Shapiro says the outcome of these races could impact future rulings on critical matters – including abortion, gun rights, and wrongful convictions.
"State Supreme Court, including the Illinois Supreme Court, are the final decision makers when it comes to the Illinois Constitution; when it comes to the Illinois statutes," Shapiro said, "and the U.S. Supreme Court cannot overrule - with very limited exceptions – the state Supreme Court on matters of state law."
Justices serve 10-year terms, and then can be retained for another 10 in subsequent elections. So they are on the bench for a long time.
Only voters who live in the open Supreme Court districts can cast a ballot in these races.