Kennedy leading in Democratic race for appellate judge seat

Lake County Judge Christopher Kennedy was leading Wednesday in the three-way race to be the Democratic nominee for the Illinois Appellate Court’s 2nd District this fall.

The winner of the contest will face Kane County Judge Susan Clancy Boles of Geneva who ran unopposed on the Republican side. Clancy Boles is currently the 16th Judicial District’s presiding judge for its civil division and is the immediate past chief judge for the court.

On the Democratic side, Kennedy had 36,717 votes tallied as of Wednesday, according to unofficial election results from the five counties that make the 2nd Appellate District. Lake County Circuit Clerk Erin Cartwright Weinstein followed by just 450 votes with 36,267 and then attorney Michael Cortina with 18,358 votes.

These results do not include late-arriving, mail-in or provisionally cast ballots. Election results are not official until they are canvassed two weeks after Election Day.

The 2nd Appellate District, redrawn last year for the first time since 1964, includes DeKalb, Kendall, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties. It previously include 13 counties across the top of the state, extending from Lake County to JoDavies County.

Kennedy, of Libertyville, is currently an associate judge in the Lake County criminal division. He is also a past assistant state’s attorney for Lake County.

Attempts to reach him Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Clancy Boles said judicial experience will matter in the November elections.

“At the appellate level, it is the reviewing court of everything that happens in the trial courts” that makes experience paramount, she said.

If judges have not presided over many types of cases – including criminal, foreclosure and parental rights cases – “they are learning on the job,” she said. “Voters don’t deserve that.”