Dear Jon:

My friends and I have been hearing so much around Boystown about your campaign for Judge. We just wanted to write to you to wish you the best of luck and let you know that we will all be voting for you on March 16! Keep up the good work! We are pulling for you.
--Julie

P.S. How did you get so many prominent politicians to endorse you?

Dear Julie:
Thank you very much for your kind words and support. We are working extremely hard and encouragement from people like you provides a great deal of strength and determination!
And I want you to be the first to know that this last Friday I received a call on my cell from U.S. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, our beloved champion of equality, who called to tell me that she has endorsed my candidacy!! We are all so very blessed to have Jan in Congress fighting for our rights-- every day. And to have her support is truly an honor.
You know Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky joins U.S. Congressman Rahm Emanuel in endorsing my candidacy, and because I serve as a policy advisor on domestic violence issues to Rahm, I've had the privilege to work closely with the Congressman and see, first hand, how he fights-- tooth and nail-- for the LGBT community every single day. Representatives Schakowsky and Emanuel are simply the two best in all of Congress-and our community is extraordinarily lucky to have them!
But to answer your question, I think the reason that people like the Hon. Dawn Clark-Netsch (former Democratic nominee for Governor), and Secretary of State Jesse White and Alderman Tom Tunney have endorsed my campaign is actually simple. It is because we share the same values.
It's because we all believe that every person, regardless of financial means, sexual orientation, gender or race has an inherent right to be treated with dignity, respect and equality.
I have dedicated my career to fighting for the civil rights of indigent women and minorities. I specialize in domestic violence and have written legislation which is currently part of the Illinois Domestic Violence Act which provides prosecutors with the tools to protect women from violence.
Most recently I worked closely with my good friends State Reps Sara Feigenholtz, Larry McKeon and Harry Osterman to write legislation that adds gender and sexual orientation to the Illinois Institutional Violence Act which protects social service providers like the LCCP and the New Center on Halsted from hate motivated vandalism.
I am particularly humbled to tell you that I recently received the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Stonewall Democrats, the IVI-IPO, and Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown and Cook County Clerk David Orr.
But most of all, I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to see so many leaders from the LGBT political and business community rally around my campaign. People whose work I have so admired for so many years like Rick Garcia, Aimee Pine, Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley (who gave us the Domestic Partnership Registry), Equality Illinois President Mike McHale, former LGBT Liaison to Mayor Daley, Mary Morton, Brandon Neese, Tom Tunney, Kelly Cassidy, Vernita Grey, Ellen Myers, David Wilshire, Jim Ludwig, Art Johnston and Larry McKeon.
I tell you this only because I believe in the politics of inclusion. We can speak as one voice as one community. We can demand, as one community, that our loves and lives be treated as equal and with respect. And together we can do anything.
--Jon