Aurelia Marie Pucinski is a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. She previously served as a trial judge and clerk of the circuit court in Cook County, Illinois. Her term expires in 2020.
After beginning her career in a neighborhood law office, Pucinski followed her father's lead into Democratic party politics. One of her first public efforts was representing citizens who sued the Chicago Board of Education to keep a local school open. She also served as an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago and as regional counsel for the U.S. Small Business Administration. In 1984 Pucinski became a Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, a position she held until 1988. Although Pucinski had the support of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Adlai Stevenson III in the Democratic primary for Secretary of State of Illinois in the 1986 election, she was upset by LaRouche supporter Janice Hart, who failed to win in the general election. In 1988, former Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Morgan M. Finley was indicted for corruption. Pucinski resoundingly defeated former Chicago mayor Jane Byrne in the Democratic primary to succeed him as Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, then defeated former Democrat turned Republican Edward Vrdolyak in the general election. As Circuit Court Clerk, Pucinski became Cook County's first official to institute a code of ethics and internal ethics board, as well as led the office into the 21st century by adopting new technology to improve efficiency and respond to law enforcement, attorneys and all citizens, including greatly improving processing of child support payments. In 1994, Pucinski ran in the Democratic primary for President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The race was a three-way contest between her, Todd Stroger, and Maria Pappas. Stroger defeated her and Pappas. In December 1997, Pucinski switched parties to the Republican Party to run for Cook County Board of Commissioners in the 1998 election. She was unsuccessful in her campaign. In 2004, became a judge on the Cook County Circuit Court. As a trial judge, Pucinski helped handled more than 10,000 Domestic Violence cases, and later was assigned to hear adoption, election, property tax and mental health cases. Her bench book summarized forms and procedures to handle civil protection orders. She also frequently speaks about elder abuse, including at a Chicago Bar Association panel on third party issues in probate, mental health, guardianship and domestic relations, as well as won the City of Chicago's Luminary Award for developing a program to assist elderly victims of domestic abuse. Pucinski ran for the Democratic nomination for Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court in 2012, but Judge Mary Jane Theis won that seat, so Pucinski continued as on the intermediate appellate court. She has criticised judicial campaign financing.
