Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the reformer, wasn't on the ballot this week. But her evil twin was campaigning hard.

You might have gotten the robocall from Preckwinkle, reminding you that Election Day was coming and urging you — twice — to vote for all the Democratic candidates "up and down the ballot." If you hung up as soon as you realized it was another pre-recorded political pitch, you missed the part that might have made you throw the phone at the wall.

"Vote yes for all of our judges for retention."

Listen for yourself. http://trib.in/robocall.

That's right. Preckwinkle personally vouched for all 57 circuit court judges seeking another six years on the bench. And guess what? They all won.

That includes Cynthia Brim, who isn't allowed in a courthouse without a police escort. A day after she was ejected from her Markham courtroom following a 45-minute rant, Brim was arrested for allegedly shoving a sheriff's deputy and throwing a set of keys at a security checkpoint at the Daley Center. She's been suspended since March, collecting her $182,000-a-year salary while awaiting a court date on a misdemeanor battery charge. On Wednesday, that date was pushed back another week.

Since joining the bench in 1994, Brim has been up for retention three times. Each time, local bar associations recommended a "no" vote based on poor performance; each time, Brim won another six years anyway. Why did that happen? Because party leaders urged voters to support all Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

This year, the Tribune urged a "no" vote on Brim and five other judges, based largely on the bar association screenings. Readers, thank you for paying attention. Brim got 183,000 more "no" votes than the judge right above her on the ballot, a judge who was recommended by the Tribune and bar groups.

But that wasn't enough. All of the judges were retained, buoyed by the Preckwinkle seal of approval.

So, the bad judges still have a job. Worse yet, they know good and well that they owe their jobs to Democratic leaders, who install and protect judges with little regard for qualifications.

It's been more than 20 years since a sitting judge failed to get the 60 percent "yes" vote needed for retention. The incompetent ones stay on the job, tucked away in corners of the justice system where they can do the least harm. Think about that the next time you find yourself in a Cook County courtroom.

Preckwinkle inherited a county government undermined by that same sort of thinking. We've given her enormous credit for her efforts to undo that damage. She's made and kept some tough promises, including wiping out the 1 percentage point sales tax increase enacted by her predecessor, Todd Stroger. Her 2013 budget proposal calls for $100 million less than what the county spent two years ago. She cut county staffing by 1,500 jobs.

And yet Preckwinkle encouraged the sort of mindless party-line voting that brought us, for example, Todd Stroger. Or to name a more recent example: Cynthia Brim.