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Cynthia Cobbs
2015 - Present
2034
10
Cynthia Cobbs is a judge of the Illinois 1st District Appellate Court. She assumed office on January 7, 2015. Her current term ends on December 4, 2034.
Cobbs (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for judge of the Illinois 1st District Appellate Court. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
On January 5, 2015, Cobbs was assigned to the First District Appellate Court.[1]
Biography
Cobbs received her undergraduate degree from Morgan State University in 1972 and her master's in social work from the University of Maryland. After working for several years as a social worker in Maryland clinics, Cobbs went on to received her J.D. degree from the IIT—Chicago Kent College of Law in 1988.[2][3]
Cobbs previously held the post of director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. She worked in this position from March 1, 2002, until joining the Cook Judicial Circuit Court in 2011. She was both the first woman and the first African American to serve as director of the Administrative Office.[2]
Awards and associations
- 2011: Earl Burris Dickerson Award, the Chicago Bar Association [2]
Elections
2024
See also: Illinois intermediate appellate court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Illinois 1st District Appellate Court
Incumbent Cynthia Cobbs won election in the general election for Illinois 1st District Appellate Court on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Cynthia Cobbs (D) | 100.0 | 1,479,372 |
| Total votes: 1,479,372 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Illinois 1st District Appellate Court
Incumbent Cynthia Cobbs defeated Carolyn Gallagher in the Democratic primary for Illinois 1st District Appellate Court on March 19, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Cynthia Cobbs | 70.6 | 335,240 |
 | Carolyn Gallagher | 29.4 | 139,774 | |
| Total votes: 475,014 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Cobbs in this election.
2020
Cook County Circuit Court
Cook County Circuit Court, Retention election for Cynthia Cobbs
Cynthia Cobbs was retained to the Cook County Circuit Court on November 3, 2020 with 80.1% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
80.1
|
1,318,514 | ||
No |
19.9
|
327,611 | |||
Total Votes |
1,646,125 | ||||
|
|
Illinois Supreme Court 1st District
See also: Illinois Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for Illinois Supreme Court 1st District
Incumbent P. Scott Neville defeated Richard Mayers in the general election for Illinois Supreme Court 1st District on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | P. Scott Neville (D) | 100.0 | 1,765,329 |
| Richard Mayers (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 31 | ||
| Total votes: 1,765,360 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Illinois Supreme Court 1st District
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Illinois Supreme Court 1st District on March 17, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | P. Scott Neville | 26.2 | 214,066 |
 | Jesse G. Reyes | 20.3 | 165,344 | |
 | Sheldon Harris | 15.1 | 123,166 | |
| Cynthia Cobbs | 12.7 | 103,497 | |
 | Margaret Stanton McBride | 12.4 | 101,475 | |
 | Daniel Epstein | 8.2 | 66,762 | |
 | Nathaniel R. Howse | 5.1 | 41,205 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 22 | ||
| Total votes: 815,537 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Clint Krislov (D)
2014
- See also: Illinois judicial elections, 2014
Cobbs ran for election to the Cook Judicial Circuit Court.
Primary: She was successful in the Democratic primary on March 18, 2014, receiving 72.3 percent of the vote. She competed against Linda L. Mastandrea.
General: She was unopposed in the general election on November 4, 2014.[4][5][6]
Evaluations
The Illinois State Bar Association rated Cynthia Cobbs as Qualified for election in 2014.[7]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Cynthia Cobbs did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Cynthia Cobbs did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2019
Cynthia Cobbs completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cobbs' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Every person who seeks or needs to use the courts should have access, regardless of their ability to pay for legal representation.
- Every justice partner (judge, clerks of court, guardian ad litem, probation officer, court administrators) should make certain that citizens using the courts are treated fairly and without bias.
- Cases presented in our courts, regardless of whether they are in the trial, appellate or supreme court, should be disposed of efficiently and without unnecessary delay.
The ability to resolve cases accepted on appeal by the Court, which requires strong legal research, analytical and writing ability.
A major facet of the work of the Illinois Supreme Court is oversight of the entire court system. The constitution requires that the Supreme Court oversee and manage (administer) all of the courts and the legal system in the state of Illinois.
The constitution also requires that the Supreme Court appoint a Director of the Courts to assist in overseeing and managing the Illinois courts.
The Supreme Court, with the assistance of the Director of the Courts, creates programs, policies and rules which govern every aspect of court administration, including, but not limited to, continuing education for judges, setting standards for probation officers, developing and amending the rules of practice for court proceedings, contracting for goods and services for judicial branch courts and offices, reviewing legislation effecting the court system, approving and overseeing alternative dispute resolution programs and setting the standards for e-filing and e-access to records in the trial courts.
Annually, on behalf of the Court, the Director of the Illinois Courts produces a Report to the Legislature, outlining the work of the Courts and, as appropriate, suggesting to the legislature that it consider certain statutes, challenged on appeal, held to be unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court is the only court which oversees the work of the entire court system in Illinois. That work requires work with the Legislative and Executive Branches of government to understand how legislation potentially affecting the courts is created and may be amended; to ensure that resources are appropriated to support judicial branch needs, as well as judicial and judicial employees' salaries, adherence to courthouse standards, funding for the delivery of probation services throughout the state, technology in the courts and operation of the court system generally.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Illinois 1st District Appellate Court |
Officeholder Illinois 1st District Appellate Court |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Illinois State Bar Association, "Cobbs, Palmer assigned to 1st District Appellate Court," January 5, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The State of Illinois, "Illinois Supreme Court Names Administrative Director Cynthia Y. Cobbs to Cook County Circuit Court," September 22, 2011
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 15, 2019
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedelect2014 - ↑ Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago, "General Primary Election, Unofficial Summary Report," March 18, 2014, archived March 21, 2014
- ↑ Cook County Clerk, "Gubernatorial Primary Election," March 18, 2014, archived March 21, 2014
- ↑ Illinois State Bar Association, "Judicial Evaluations," October 2014
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