Judge Tom Fitzgerald is a nice guy, so he is probably reluctant to let Mort Zwick drag him down into an eye-gouging, hair-pulling wrestling match for the Illinois Supreme Court.
Zwick tried last week. He started running an ad against Fitzgerald, the first attack ad in a Supreme Court race here in 20 years. But the harshest word Fitzgerald could muster to describe it was “deplorable.”
He could have used crude, sneaky, deceitful, slippery, phony, fraudulent, dishonest, rotten and immoral, but he didn’t. He simply used deplorable. That’s OK. That’s the way Fitzgerald is.
But Zwick’s ad was crude, sneaky and all the rest. It attempts to link Fitzgerald to the 13 cases in Illinois where innocent people were sentenced to death. But Fitzgerald was not a judge in any of those cases.
Worse, Zwick tries to buy some credibility by using quotes from a Tribune editorial and a news story, even though the quotes had nothing to do with Fitzgerald. The Tribune has endorsed Fitzgerald.
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But people seeing the ads might not realize that. They might not realize that Mort Zwick questioning Tom Fitzgerald’s professionalism is like Madonna debating the virtue of her namesake.
Let’s take a look at these two men side by side.
When the Cook County traffic courts weren’t getting cleaned up even after presiding Judge Richard LeFevour was convicted for bribery, Fitzgerald was sent in to do the job. He did. He ended the practice of routinely letting scofflaws off the hook, started the traffic school and made sure there were prosecutors in every courtroom,
That was around the time Zwick divorced his wife, State Rep. Jill Zwick, then out of spite ran against her in a Republican primary. Jill dropped out of the race to spare their children from having to watch their father humiliate their mother in public. Mort lost the election.
When the Supreme Court wanted to investigate corruption and inefficiency in the state’s courts, Fitzgerald was one of the people chosen to join the Special Commission on the Administration of Justice, the so-called Solovy II commission. “He was essential,” said the chairman, Jerold Solovy, who’s backing Fitzgerald for the Supreme Court. “Judge Fitzgerald always had new ideas.”
That was around the time Zwick quit the law to go make a killing trading pork bellies at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Zwick felt so good about his career change that he took to wearing a belt with two hogs on the buckle.
A decade ago, Fitzgerald was chosen to head up the Cook County criminal courts when they were being overrun with drug cases. One of the most important things he did was promote drug treatment for offenders, so addicts got help instead of recycling through the courts and prisons.
That was around the time Zwick locked up a nun because she had the audacity to disagree with him. Sister Sheila Lyne was about to be shipped to Cook County Jail when Supreme Court Justice Michael Bilandic ordered that she be freed. Later, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled Sister Sheila was right and Zwick was dead wrong.
Last year, when it was so clear the state had come close to executing innocent men, the Supreme Court chose Fitzgerald to lead the investigation of what went wrong. Fitzgerald’s group has recommended changes to make sure defendants have decent lawyers and a fair trial.
That was around the time Zwick was taking a $25,000 campaign contribution from a developer who had just signed a sweetheart lease deal with Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White. After I wrote about the big contribution, White quit as honorary chairman of Zwick’s campaign and Zwick reluctantly gave the money back.
But he has plenty left. Zwick has about $1 million to spend on campaign ads. What you might wonder is why someone with such an unusual career path would seek a seat on the Supreme Court.
It’s not about justice, it’s about jobs. Each member of the Supreme Court gets to choose judges for the circuit and appellate courts. Each judge makes a few picks and the rest of the court rubber stamps them.
A member of the Supreme Court can be a great source for patronage, if he wants to play it that way. Why bother with jobs in the Sewer Department when you can turn a campaign supporter into a judge of the circuit court, with a $126,900 salary and a gavel and the opportunity to have all the lawyers grovel at the hem of your black robe?
That’s how Zwick got where he is. Zwick is in a political buddy clique with Jesse White and 42nd Ward boss George Dunne and Supreme Court Justice Charles Freeman.
When Freeman had a chance in 1990 to pick a circuit court judge, he could have picked an esteemed lawyer. He could have selected any number of qualified women or Hispanics or African-Americans to diversify the court.
Instead he picked Zwick, just a few years after Zwick had quit trading pork bellies and gone back to the law. Four years later, Freeman had a chance to select a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court. Same choices, even more prestigious job. Freeman picked Zwick again. That’s something to think about when Freeman asks the voters in November to give him another 10-year term on the Supreme Court.
But that’s later.
First there’s the March 21 Democratic primary, where voters in Cook County can show they aren’t bamboozled by attack ads. Yes, they’re deplorable.
And more.
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