From the Belleville News-Democrat
Judges John Baricevic, Robert Haida and Robert LeChien have filed paperwork that they will retire in December 2016 but will run for their judges’ jobs in the November 2016 general election, where they need only a majority of votes instead of the 60 percent required if they ran for retention.
Baricevic, the chief judge, said by running in the general election he will not be barred by the Code of Judicial Ethics from bringing up topics such as the effect former judge Mike Cook’s heroin arrest and imprisonment had on St. Clair County’s judiciary and the prevalence of heroin deaths in the metro-east. Haida and LeChien could not be reached for comment, but Baricevic said they too will run in the general election.
Former circuit judge Lloyd Cueto did the same thing in 2006 — avoiding a retention election that would have required a favorable vote percentage of 60 percent.
John Pastuovic, president of the pro-business Illinois Civil Justice League, said his group opposed avoiding a retention runoff when Cueto did it, and is opposed to the current plan by the three 20th Circuit judges based in Belleville. The circuit covers five counties: St. Clair, Monroe, Perry, Washington and Randolph.
“We were against this when it happened before. We thought it was wrong in 2006 and we think it’s wrong now,” Pastuovic said.
“I guarantee it is not what the framers of the (Illinois) Constitution had in mind when they created the retention system for judges. It was their intent that judges, once they served, should meet that higher standard of a 60 percent retention. And while this is not illegal, it’s certainly not what the authors of the Constitution intended,” he said.
Steven Lubet, a professor of law at Northwestern University in Evanston, who has written widely on legal ethics, said: “I think it’s within the law and I think the voters will have a choice. I don’t see anything unethical about it. But it’s virtually unheard of.”