In the race for a seat being vacated by Circuit Judge Jan Fiss, Associate Judge Heinz Rudolf has won by a four-point margin.
Unofficial results in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit show Rudolf, Democrat, defeated Republican challenger Katherine Ruocco, an attorney from Swansea, 67,357 to 62711 votes.
As with the race between Associate Judge John O'Gara, Democrat, and Paul Evans, Republican, outside of St. Clair County, Republican candidates were favored by voters.
Ruocco had 8,582 more votes than Rudolf in Monroe, Perry, Randolph and Washington counties. And, Rudolf had 6,868 more votes than Ruocco in St. Clair County. But party line votes coming out of East St. Louis - 6,683 to 323 for Rudolf, a margin of 95 to 5 percent - sealed it for the Democrat.
A Belleville-based lawyer, Ruocco, self-funded her campaign with $127,000, including $20,000 since the start of October.
Ruocco and Evans were critical of the campaign funds local attorneys poured into the campaigns of Democrat judicial candidates, including Rudolf, O'Gara and Associate Judge Chris Kolker, who defeated Republican Laninya Cason for a St. Clair County judgshipe by a 14 point margin.
Rudolf raised more than $150,000 largely from local lawyers and law firms.