A lawyer who worked on Ald. Marty Quinn’s overzealous effort to bump a college student off the ballot during Quinn’s 2019 reelection campaign is looking to make the leap to Cook County Circuit Court judge.
Jim Gleffe, 39, earned his political stripes as a precinct captain in the 13th Ward run by former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who lost his speakership when implicated but not charged in the ComEd bribery case. Madigan remains the ward’s Democratic committeeman, a post he has held for more than half a century.
“I have volunteered for the 13th Ward Democratic Ward Organization, the Cook County Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Illinois,” Gleffe says in his website pitch, bona fides that are likely to come up when Cook County Democratic slatemakers meet Monday and Tuesday.
Jim Gleffe, candidate for Cook County Circuit Court judge, earned his political stripes as a precinct captain in the 13th Ward run by former House Speaker Michael Madigan. (Jim Gleffe for Judge campaign)
Gleffe has loaded up his political team with Madigan acolytes. His campaign chairman is Michael Kasper, the powerhouse lobbyist who was the former speaker’s top lawyer in the House and at the Illinois Democratic Party of Illinois, and his campaign manager is his wife, Kristen Bauer, a statehouse lobbyist.
Gleffe, a longtime 13th Ward resident who now lives in Palos Park, worked for dozens of Democratic candidates over the years. He currently works as the deputy chief of staff and labor counsel for Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough, a longtime Madigan ally, after previously holding state and city positions in offices held by Democrats.
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Through his ties to Quinn, Madigan’s hand-picked alderman for the 13th Ward, Gleffe performed a precinct-level role in the 2019 effort to push 19-year-old political neophyte David Krupa, a DePaul University student, off the 13th Ward aldermanic ballot.
Trying to get a challenger disqualified from the ballot is a typical tactic for political operatives, who pore over voter signatures on an opponent’s nominating petitions to see if any are flawed and get them struck.
But Quinn’s allies engaged in an unusually hard-charging effort against Krupa. They swarmed the 13th Ward to get voters to sign affidavits swearing they wanted their signatures revoked from Krupa’s petitions. They began collecting the affidavits even before Krupa filed his nominating petitions and stockpiled them with election authorities.
David Krupa, then 19 and a candidate for 13th Ward alderman, in 2018. Krupa submitted 1,729 voter signatures to run for office. But the pro-Marty Quinn team collected 2,796 affidavits from people saying they wanted to withdraw their signatures on Krupa’s paperwork. (José M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
Krupa ended up submitting 1,729 voter signatures to run for office. But the pro-Quinn team collected 2,796 affidavits from people saying they wanted to withdraw their signatures on Krupa’s paperwork.
In its objection to Krupa’s candidacy, Quinn’s team provided a list of fewer than 200 matches between voters who signed both the Krupa nominating petitions and affidavits revoking their names.
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Only a handful of more than 40 affidavits that Gleffe notarized were among the 200 matches.
Asked about his role in that effort against Krupa, Gleffe’s campaign issued a statement in which he acknowledged notarizing approximately 40 documents for “neighbors that wanted to have their signatures removed from the record in the event a candidate filed petitions with their signatures.”
“Mr. Gleffe’s role as a notary was simply to verify the person in front of him was the same person signing the document,” the statement said.
While saying no one has questioned the authenticity of the documents he notarized, Gleffe’s statement said he was not involved in the actual petition challenge that was filed against Krupa.
“He can’t say with certainty,” Gleffe’s statement said, “but it is likely the candidate (Quinn) did not file all of the signature pages that were collected, or those declarations simply were not needed to challenge the petitions given there were so many … signatures that were being challenged.”
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One of the biggest questions in the election was why Quinn bothered to file objections to the little-known opponent, when the challenge itself raised the young opponent’s profile. Quinn eventually withdrew his challenge to Krupa and won the election with 86 % of the vote.
A Cook County grand jury issued a subpoena for election records following Quinn’s excessive push, but there is no sign that inquiry gained traction.
Stephen Boulton, Krupa’s attorney in a federal lawsuit challenging Quinn’s far-reaching use of affidavits and other matters, was less than praiseworthy about the overall effort.
“They just went out and scattershot, just got as many people as they could, and turned around and filed them,” Boulton said.
But Boulton, who doubles as chairman of the Chicago Republican Party, also questioned whether anyone involved in Quinn’s overall effort against Krupa is “qualified to be a judge.”
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Democratic Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin of Evanston reached out to the Tribune after the paper tried to set up an interview with Gleffe. Suffredin praised Gleffe’s work to help combine the county recorder of deeds and county clerk’s offices and to smooth over issues that helped families transfer property without going through an expensive probate process.
“He is someone who can solve problems for people,” Suffredin said. “I think he has the integrity and the smarts … to do what a judge needs to do, which is to render a fair and impartial decision.”
Suffredin, who lobbies for the Chicago Bar Association in Springfield, said he asked the CBA to reconsider after learning of preliminary signals that Gleffe may receive low marks when CBA rated judicial candidates, largely because his legal work is done mostly outside the courtroom.
Suffredin said putting too much weight on courtroom experience “really limits who’s going to become a judge.”
Suffredin’s arguments failed to persuade the bar group, though, leaving Gleffe and his team of 13th Ward cheerleaders to depend on their political prowess to put him in a black robe.
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The Chicago Bar Association issued its ratings of judicial candidates on Friday.
“James Gleffe is ‘Not Recommended’ for the office of Circuit Court Judge,” the CBA explained. “Mr. Gleffe was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 2007 and has worked for public agencies throughout his career. Mr. Gleffe is currently serving as Deputy chief of staff and Labor Counsel for the Cook County Clerk’s Office.
“Mr. Gleffe has very limited trial and litigation experience,” the statement said. “At this point in his career, Mr. Gleffe lacks the depth and breadth of practice experience to effectively serve as a Circuit Court Judge.”
rlong@chicagotribune.com
@RayLong
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