(Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Circuit Judge Zina Cruse as the fifth judge who is up for retention this year. An earlier version had inadvertently omitted her name).
Voters in St. Clair County will weigh in on five possible judicial retention races in November's general election.
Circuit judges up for retention include Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson, and circuit judges Christopher Kolker, John O'Gara, Heinz Rudolf and Zina Cruse, who were all elected as Democrat candidates.
Gleeson and Cruse, first elected in 2012, would be seeking their third six-year terms; Kolker, O'Gara and Rudolf, elected in 2016, would be seeking second six-year terms.
They run in the 20th Judicial Circuit, which now involves only St. Clair County, a reliably Democratic base. In 2020, Biden won 53% of the vote to Trump's 45%.
To win a retention race, judges need to earn at least 60% of ballots cast. Voters are asked a "yes" or "no" question on retention, and judges running for retention do not run with party affiliation.
The 20th judicial circuit had also included Republican counties of Monroe, Perry, Randolph and Washington until the Illinois General Assembly in 2021 passed a law that split those conservative counties into the 24th Judicial Circuit.
The law was sponsored by longtime Democrat State Rep. Jay Hoffman.
So far this year, Kolker has raised the most funds of the four judges seeking retention, having received $58,000 in contributions, mostly from trial attorneys.
Rudolf has raised $34,000, mostly from trial attorneys.
Gleeson has received a total of $15,000, through a $10,000 contribution from The Cates Law Firm in Belleville and $5,000 from Kujawski & Associates in O'Fallon.
O'Gara and Cruse have not raised any funds this year.