A nurse-turned-law clerk is the only candidate listed on next week's general election ballot for an open Chicago-area judgeship, even after she was fired from her courthouse job and criminally charged for donning a black robe and presiding over traffic cases that should have been heard by a real judge.
Legal observers say there's no obvious reason Rhonda Crawford was able to easily win the Democratic primary in March over two more experienced jurists who, unlike her, received good reviews by legal associations.
Illinois is one of several states where party-affiliated candidates run for vacant judicial seats. Critics say the system often renders candidate records irrelevant and means races are decided more by clout, identity politics and sheer luck. Superficial factors, like the origin of a candidate's last name, gender or ballot position, can also end up swaying uninformed voters.
Some 30,000 judges across the U.S. hear millions of cases each year ranging from traffic to murder, but there is no commonly accepted best practice for how to select these public officials. Reformers say imperfect systems sometimes provide openings for substandard judicial candidates to sneak through. Critics say Crawford is a case in point.
