Dance with the one that brung you. – Darrell Royal
To be fair, I’m the very journalist who’s regularly proclaimed that sheriff, state’s attorney, and judicial races should be non-partisan. The (sometimes) fine folks who serve in those critical law enforcement positions should never be beholden to party politics and free to rise above the sordid political fray.
But despite my vast open dissent, those contests remain patently partisan and no one’s asking me to write up the new law, either.
So, since we’re clearly stuck with this electoral dynamic, my sentiment has always been that, despite a district’s dire demographics, a candidate should remain true to their core beliefs because anything else makes it that much more difficult to gaze into the bathroom mirror.
And when you consider the gravity of the office, that should be particularly true of judges.
To be fair again, unlike some states, Illinois forces neither voters nor candidates to declare a political party ahead of time. We can pull a Republican or Democratic primary ballot at will, and anyone can run as a Republican in one cycle and as a Democrat in the next.
But that doesn’t make the latter right!
Clearly comprehending there’s no way she could win the impending Aurora subcircuit judicial election as a Republican, and unlike the proverbial permanently spotted leopard, Judge Bianca Camargo has suddenly thrown off her GOP shackles and determined that she’s a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.
How do I know this? Oh! That’s easy!
Please observe the nominating petitions signature sheet photos below and you’ll swiftly determine that Ms. Camargo did not collect signatures for then Democratic State’s Attorney candidate Jamie Mosser. She collected those names for ultra-conservative then Republican State’s Attorney candidate Bob Spence!
My source also told me that she procured those autographs while wearing a “Bob Spence for State’s Attorney” t-shirt just for good measure. You remember Bob! He’s the one who’s issued the infamous quotes like, “Mass incarcerations work,” and “There’s no room for compassion in the law.”
Not to mention when Spence was a 16th Circuit judge, he regularly violated the spirit and intent of pre-sentencing conferences by forcing defendants to take whatever the State had offered. To wit, if the prosecution asked for three years and the defense wanted probation, Spence would threaten a six-year term “if a deal couldn’t be reached.”
Spence got so bad in this regard that at least one prominent Kane County attorney refused to attend any of his pre-sentencing hearings.
Though this expedient denominational side switching pales in comparison to what we’ve already exposed about Judge Camargo, the people of Aurora really oughtta know exactly who or who they aren’t voting for.
Aside from being a generally despicable individual, Bianca Camargo ain’t no Democrat.
