By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Three openly gay candidates for judgeships on the Cook County Circuit Court bench lost their races Feb. 5.

Prominent GLBT community activist James Snyder came closest to victory but lost his bid for the 10th subcircuit seat to Ursala Walowski. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted late Feb. 5, Walowski led Snyder by a 38-30 percent margin, with two other candidates splitting the remaining votes.

In the race for an 8th subcircuit court seat, openly gay Aaron Weiss was far behind, with just under 6 percent of the votes, with Ann Collins Dole heading for an easy victory over Weiss, Judge James Shapiro and four other candidates.

Another openly gay candidate, Thomas Doran, lost badly to Debra Walker in a race for a countywide court seat.

In other Cook County Circuit Court races of interest in the GLBT community, Judge Lauretta Higgins Wolfson came up just short in a race that pitted her against another sitting judge, Dennis Burke, while Jesse Reyes handily defeated Terry MacCarthy in another countywide judicial race.