July 22, 2015

Five Madison-St. Clair Judicial Seats Up For Retention In 2016; Longest Serving Judge In Illinois Is One Of Them
From the Madison County Record
While elected circuit judges currently ponder who will fill a total of six associate judge vacancies in Madison and St. Clair County courts, voters next year will decide whether to retain five of those sitting circuit judges.
That is, if those five judges decide to seek successive six-year terms.
Circuit judges up for retention in 2016 in the Third Judicial Circuit - which includes Madison and Bond counties - are Andreas Matoesian and William Mudge, and in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit - which includes St. Clair, Monroe, Perry, Randolph and Washington counties - are chief judge John Baricevic, Robert LeChien and Robert Haida.
All of the five circuit judges identify as Democrats.
But judicial retention races differ from open seat races in two distinct ways: they are non-partisan and they require super-majority voter approval of 60 percent rather than simple-majority of more than 50 percent.
Matoesian, 77, in his 50th year on the bench, is the longest serving judge in the state of Illinois.
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