Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago
CHICAGO — In an election marked largely by an absence of candidates for judge in Cook County, voters in Chicago and the county's suburban communities selected winners in the only 12 contested judicial races in the March 17 Democratic Primary election.
In those races, voters appear to have rejected two who had been earlier appointed to judgeships.
And the powerful Cook County Democratic Party appears to have seen one of its favored candidates go down to defeat in a race for a countywide seat on the Cook County Circuit Court.
The elections were to fill vacancies left in the county’s judiciary following the departure of various judges in the Cook County Circuit Court.
All election results were unofficial tallies posted as of March 18 by the Cook County Clerk’s Office and the Chicago Board of Elections.
However, all of the winners in the Democratic Party are likely to advance to what history says will likely be easy wins in the November general election in the famously overwhelmingly Democrat-dominated Cook County.
No Republican candidates asked their party's voters to nominate them to seek any Cook County judgeships this spring.
In contested Democratic balloting, judicial candidates Luz Maria Toledo and Ashonta C. Rice appeared to have cruised to sizable wins in the contests for two countywide Cook County Circuit Court seats.
Toledo, an assistant Cook County State's Attorney and former prosecutor now serving in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office's Civil Actions Bureau, had collected 318,455 votes, or about 57% of the vote.
With votes still being counted, Toledo appeared poised to defeat Linda Sackey, a former Illinois Assistant Attorney General and former judicial clerk to recently retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis. Sackey had been appointed to the Cook County bench in 2025 to temporarily replace retired Judge William H. Hooks.
In the other contested Democratic countywide race, Rice had amassed 336,484 votes, or about 60% of the vote.
With votes still being tallied, Rice appeared to have defeated Michael Carbonagi, a former member of the Cook County Board of Review, the government body which hears property tax appeals, as well as the former regional director of the Great Lakes Region of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under former President Joe Biden.
In 2025, Carbonagi had been appointed to the Cook County bench to temporarily replace retired Judge Mary Ellen Coghlan.
Carbonagi and Toledo had each been endorsed by the powerful Cook County Democratic Party.
Running uncontested for countywide vacancies on the Cook County Circuit Court were: Steven Q. McKenzie, Ava George Stewart and D'Anthony "Tony" Thedford. All three received endorsements from the Cook County Democratic Party.
In Cook County’s judicial subcircuits, at least two races remained too close to call, as of March 18, as Tiffany N. Brooks held a lead of 15,561 votes to 15,137 votes for Ashley Greer Shambley, according to unofficial tallies from the Chicago Board of Elections.
And in the 8th Subcircuit, Kathleen Cunniff Ori held a slim lead over Elizabeth Christina Dibler, 12,649 votes to 12,478.
In other contested subcircuit races, however, likely winners appeared to include:
In the First Subcircuit, Radiance Ward;
In the Third Subcircuit, Rachel Marrello;
In the Eighth Subcircuit, Lester Finkle;
In the 11th Subcircuit, Jarrett Knox;
In the 17th Subcircuit, Natalia Moore and Bianca B. Brown;
In the 19th Subcircuit, Monica Somerville;
And in the 20th Subcircuit, Jon Stromsta.
Those running uncontested in the March 17 Democratic primary for judicial subcircuits included: In the Third Subcircuit, John Carroll; in the Fifth Subcircuit, Stephanie S. Kelly; in the 11th Subcircuit, Kim Przekota; in the 13th Subcircuit, Robert "Bob" Groebner, William F. Kelley, Dan Naranjo and Brittany Michelle Pedersen; in the 16th Subcircuit, Julian Sanchez Crozier and Jessica Karina Velez; in the 18th Subcircuit, Sam Bae and Juan Ponce de Leon; in the 19th Subcircuit, Sara McGann; and in the 20th Subcircuit, Michael J. Zink.
