Democratic primary for Illinois Supreme Court a three-woman race

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Updated: January 23, 2012 3:45AM

The three women judges seeking an open Cook County seat on the Supreme Court of Illinois are gathering signatures, money and endorsements.

The Cook County Democratic Party may decide to endorse one of the three Wednesday.

In the past two weeks, Mayor Rahm Emanuel headlined a fund-raiser for Justice Mary Jane Theis, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle headlined one for Justice Joy Cunningham. Justice Aurelia Pucinski is gathering signatures and has not scheduled a fund-raiser yet.

Theis serves in the seat now by appointment. Cunningham and Pucinski sit on the state appellate court where Theis served for 17 years before being appointed to the high court last year.

Emanuel was joined by state Senate President John Cullerton at Theis’ fund-raiser at the Berghoff Restaurant, along with current and former members of the bench. Former Mayor Richard M. Daley has also endorsed Theis. He was represented by his brother Michael Daley and his nephew Patrick Thompson, who co-chairs Theis’ campaign.

“Mary Jane Theis and I co-chaired John Cullerton’s first campaign for state representative,” Thompson’s co-chair Tom Moore said in introducing Theis. Cullerton said he met Theis when they both applied for jobs at the Cook County Public Defender’s office after getting out of law school.

Theis was one of the seven state Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn an appellate court decision that took Emanuel’s name off the ballot for mayor. Though the vote was unanimous, Theis was one of the five judges signing a majority opinion more strongly in favor of dismissing the challenge to Emanuel’s residency.

“What do you look for in a judge?” Emanuel asked donors at the Berghoff. “Experience, appreciation for the law, good judgment … she has the backbone to make the tough calls, the judgment and the character.”

He noted that Theis was “quite literally a neighbor.” He praised her efforts to get Illinois lawyers to do more free legal work for the poor.

Theis returned the compliment, noting Emanuel ran a triathlon amid all the initiatives he is launching as mayor. “Your energy has made us feel we want to follow you,” Theis told Emanuel.

While much of the city’s political and legal establishment is lining up behind Theis, Cunningham assembled an impressive line-up of supporters for her first fund-raiser at the law firm of Holland and Knight.

Legal heavyweight Gery Chico, the former Chicago Board of Education president who came in second to Emanuel in the mayor’s race, is supporting Cunningham, not that there is any proxy war playing out in this judicial election between pro-Emanuel and anti-Emanuel factions.

U.S, Rep. Danny K. Davis, Secretary of State Jesse White; former Appellate Justice Warren Wolfson; Bettylu Saltzman, an early supporter of President Obama, and former Michelle Obama Chief of Staff Susan Sher, among others, are on board with Cunningham.

In addition to prominent names in the legal community, Cunningham is finding support from big names in medicine. A former nurse, Cunningham served as general counsel for Northwestern Memorial Hospital and as associate general counsel for Loyola before that.

Sher was general counsel for the University of Chicago while Cunningham was at Northwestern.

Cunningham would be the first African-American woman to serve on the state Supreme Court.

Blessed with a name Chicago voters have recognized for generations, Pucinski won’t need to spend as much as Theis and Cunningham to boost her name recognition.

Her father, Roman Pucinski, was a congressman, alderman, Chicago Sun-Times reporter and candidate for mayor.

Aurelia Pucinski was part of Mayor Harold Washington’s “Dream Team” of candidates for Cook County office just before Washington died. She won as Clerk of the Circuit Court and spent 12 years administering that office — administrative experience she said would be helpful on the Supreme Court, where judges have administrative, as well as opinion-writing duties.

Pucinski was elected a judge in 2004 and moved up to the appellate court last year. She ran two unsuccessful bids for Cook County Board president, once as a Democrat and once as a Republican.

The three women will face off in the Democratic primary. So far, they are the only declared candidates. The winner will face Republican Judge James Riley in the general election. A Republican has never won the seat.