Balm in Illinois

Illinois was an enclave of blue, as in gloom, last Tuesday. It’s not much consolation that the Republican Senate candidate did slightly better than the hapless GOP standard bearer in New York or that Republicans narrowed the Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate by one seat each. Still, there was one bright light. In the Fifth Appellate District, covering a large part of southwestern downstate, Republican Lloyd Karmeier won a formerly Democratic State Supreme Court judgeship. What’s more, his opponent’s campaign was heavily funded by the notoriously corrupt Madison County plaintiffs’ bar, the nation’s premier example of why the tort system needs reforming. The contest was reportedly the most expensive judicial election in American history, and it was money well spent. The cause of legal common sense gained a judge (reducing the Dem majority on the Supreme Court to four-to-three). Meanwhile, the Madison County sharks wasted something like $5 million and lost a judicial ally, for their candidate not only did not get elected to the high court but also was up to retention in his current appellate court position and failed to garner enough votes to keep his job. He is the first appellate judge ever rejected by Illinois voters.