Three judges other than Toomin also appeared to narrowly win their retention races, garnering less than 65% of the vote: Jackie Portman-Brown, John Mahoney, and Patricia Martin, who has announced plans to retire before the next judicial term starts on Dec. 7.
In 2018, just one judge won retention with less than 65% of the vote. That year, Matthew Coghlan also became the first Cook County judge to lose a retention bid since 1990, when seven judges lost their seats.
Brendan Shiller, the Judicial Accountability PAC’s board president, said he was disappointed in Tuesday’s results. But he said the high number of judges that didn’t cross 65% “yes” votes this election signified growing public interest in judicial contests.
“I wish Toomin had lost. But I’m happy he was held accountable and forced to fight tooth and nail to hang on,” he said. “I think the trend is still going in a manner where we can expect these races to be real races.”
There were just two contested races in north suburban subcircuits for open seats on the Cook County Circuit Court. In the 12th subcircuit, unofficial results showed Republican Frank DiFranco beating Democrat Patricia Fallon by a margin of 54 to 45. In the 13th subcircuit, the race between Democrat Susanne Groebner and Republican Gary Seyring – a rematch of the 2018 Republican primary – remained too close to call on Wednesday.