Peoria Standard

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride does not deserve to retain his seat as the judge doesn’t answer to the law or the people, according to Tazewell County Board chairman Dave Zimmerman.

“Thomas Kilbride is Madigan’s hand-picked Supreme Court Justice, giving him millions in exchange for blocking term limits, fair maps, and other crucial reforms," Zimmerman said. "Unseating Kilbride must be one of our top priorities this November if we are to bring reform to our state and end the corruption.” 

Zimmerman called Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) a masterful politician.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride | Illinois Supreme Court/Wikimedia Commons

“He plays it beautifully and he plays it to his advantage. Anywhere from being a property tax appeal attorney in Chicago and having the assessor being part of the Democratic Party,” Zimmerman told the Peoria Standard. “He handpicks his people and puts them in places that enhance his power.”

Zimmerman believes Madigan put $1.3 million of his campaign money into Kilbride’s 2010 retention vote so he’d have a reliable vote on the state Supreme Court, which he said proved to be true. Kilbride barely retained his seat.

Over the years, Kilbride has received approximately $4 million in campaign funds connected to Madigan, according to an op-ed written by former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in the Dispatch-Argus.

Zimmerman said a school board member in Morton said we are a people to be governed, not ruled.

Kilbride wrote majority opinion in favor of Madigan in rejecting an independent maps commission to prevent gerrymandering, the Madison Record reported. A lead plaintiff in the case against independent maps was ComEd, which pleaded guilty to bribery and is apparently assisting in the investigation against Madigan.

“And when the citizens can’t even have an initiative like this where you literally have hundreds of thousands if not millions of people wanting this, and you have four Supreme Court justices that say ‘sorry taxpaying Illinoisans, you can’t do this.’ I think that’s wrong,” Kilbride said.

If the independent maps initiative passed, Zimmerman said he thinks there would be much less polarization in politics.

“Because right now the districts are so gerrymandered it’s whoever can race to the farthest of the extremes is who wins the primarily. And you see the results,” he said.

Kilbride does not deserve retention because he’s not showing independence from Madigan, instead being a voice of Madigan and not the people of Illinois in his rulings, Zimmerman said. Kilbride doesn’t reflect the interests of the law or the people, instead representing the interests of one man.

The retention election issue should be nonpartisan because Kilbride’s rulings have been completely against the will of the people in Illinois, Zimmerman said.

Kilbride has favored the plaintiff as the lone dissenting justice in many cases, the Madison Record reported.

Zimmerman supports partisan elections for judicial positions, which he acknowledged may sound odd. But party affiliation tells a lot about a person’s philosophical or judicial temperament, he added

“It doesn’t have to be like that," he said. "But in today’s environment at least it gives you a better idea of who you are voting for when you vote that way.” 

He said he didn’t know Kilbride or his record before election to the Illinois Supreme Court, so he can’t address his qualifications as a judge.

“We have elections and the people spoke," Zimmerman said. "So, in that regard, yes, he should have been because that’s who the people elected. But in terms of retention, I don’t believe so.”

In his first job out of college, Zimmerman’s then boss told him he always voted no on retention elections, so the judges knew not to get too comfortable in their position.

Zimmerman knows his judges in local elections and he knows if he wants to retain them. But in the statewide retention vote on Kilbride, Zimmerman expects to vote no for his retention.