Election season is underway, and Jackson County is looking for its next state’s attorney. The county, which houses Carbondale, has narrowed the race down to two candidates: Joseph Cervantez and Marsha Cascio-Hale. 

A state’s attorney is an elected official who serves as chief prosecuting officer of a specific county. Cervantez, who is a member of the Republican Party, currently holds the position, having been elected in 2020. He said he believes that in order to prevent crime and build a stronger community, a state’s attorney must be “preventative” and “reactive.” 

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“Your role is to make sure the cases are ready for trial from the very beginning,” he said. “The preventative side is a big deal…You got to be in the community to prevent crime. You want to work yourself out of a job.” 

Democratic candidate Cascio-Hale said the role a state’s attorney plays in the community is working with members on initiatives. 

“There’s just so much good in our community,” she said. “I think we just need to bring that to the forefront and continue bolstering it.” 

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Cascio-Hale was appointed Williamson County State’s Attorney in July 2022 after her predecessor, Brandon Zanotti, resigned. She ran for the general election that November but lost to Republican challenger Theodore Hampson. 

In a new year and a new place, she is challenging Cervantez with a platform that she describes as “justice.” 

“Justice is my platform,” she said. “My heart goes toward domestic violence victims, and I believe a lot of times, victims don’t have the opportunity to get back into their life right away, because of the length of time it currently takes to get through cases…And so my whole thing is, let’s get them through the system so that the victim – the survivor – can get back to feeling like themselves.” 

She said that, if elected, she wants to seek grant funding. The main two she has in mind are for self-defense classes and anti-bullying initiatives. She said the self-defense classes will be provided for survivors of domestic violence. 

“I believe…statistics show that once you’re a victim, you have a higher likelihood of being a victim again,” she said. “And so if we can stop the revictimization by helping people…redevelop that self-confidence, that self-awareness, to where they’re not afraid as much, that’s where my heart lies.” 

The anti-bullying initiative will be put in place to prevent gun violence, she said.

“We want to try and encourage individuals not to pick up a gun to solve their problems,” she said. “And so for me, I have another initiative that I want to get into the schools, which is an anti-bullying collaborative, where we get a group of people together, like the superintendents,  teachers, counselors, parents, local community leaders, to where we can help potentially redirect a person – a young person – before they get to a point of picking up a weapon.”

She said the program would aim to both help victims of bullying and prevent bullying from happening. 

“Sometimes kids are really good at not showing adults necessarily what’s going on…And so I think if we can get the victim to say ‘this is what’s going on,’ we can get the individuals at school to say, ‘let’s keep an eye on it’ and then potentially work with that student, the perpetrator and the victim. Maybe not together, but yeah, working so that we can help take some of the anger away.” 

Cascio-Hale mentioned that she believes the job is “not just about prosecution.” 

“It’s about training your attorneys,” she said. “It’s about nurturing the attorneys so that they have the right tools to learn the proper way to have a trial…The further you go in the legal system in terms of being an attorney, the more you’re going to learn, the more experience you’re going to have. I believe that there’s a way to nurture that and to encourage that, and to mentor that and to provide guidance.” 

She spoke briefly about her role as a mentor in different career fields. 

“I supervised I think nine attorneys and 13 support staff over in Williamson County,” she said. “I’m an older person, I was a nontraditional student when I went to law school…and I had a whole other life before this. I supervised a word-processing pool…and I had nine transcriptionists who I trained, I assigned workflows, everything it takes nurturing, mentoring to grow the…team.” 

She said she believes she brings a “different set of experiences” to the position.  

“I will be the first female state’s attorney in Jackson County,” she said. “Jackson County hasn’t seen anyone like me.” 

Cervantez said he also brought a new perspective to the office, as his victory in 2020 marked the first time a Republican had been elected as Jackson County state’s attorney in 70 years, as well as the first time a person of color was elected to the position.

“Still, in the First Circuit and I believe in the Second Circuit, there is no judge that looks like me, and so it was important to a lot of members of the community to shake things up a little bit and get the same old people that have been in the office out,” he said.  

He said the office needs to be organized and run “in an efficient way with the staff that Jackson County deserves.” 

“We’re diverse, our staff has to be diverse,” he said. “You know, we’re a compassionate community, we’ve got to be compassionate here in the office. So our office has to reflect that. It didn’t before, it does now.” 

He said he branded himself as “the party of change” during both his previous campaign and this year’s campaign.

“I was the one telling the community groups…‘Look it can be better,’” he said. “In Jackson County, there’s no drug court, there’s a need of juvenile diversion programs. There’s not one community program that I could name when I came to the office, not one. Not one.”

He mentioned family remediation as a current initiative that he finds imperative.  

“Sometimes getting the family involved through my office is a very important thing…I think it helps everybody get on board and buy in that the kid needs help before it’s me against the parents and that whole family,” he said. “Now it’s going to be, if I can help it, me and the family trying to convince the kid to change his or her life. And I think that’s the way that I’m going to move forward on a lot of cases with the juvenile docket.” 

Cervantez said he believes the office does not belong to a specific political party, but rather “belongs to the people.” 

“People can call me, they have my cellphone number, and I work with every group, no matter who they are, because I represent all the people in the county, not just my political party,” he said. 

Cervantez said one of the most prevalent crimes he comes across in Jackson County is theft. 

“People steal, they get arrested, they’re let out the next day,” he said. “They steal again, they get arrested, they’re let out the next day. We can sanction them, but by the time we sanction them, sometimes they build up two or three more felonies, and we’re unable to get resources to them as quickly as we need to.” 

He said this crime is impacting landlords, business owners and property managers. 

“Some things are going to have to give, as far as changing legislation so that I can do more against these thefts…the state legislature has got to take some handcuffs off of me and let me go to work and make people accountable for what they steal from our business owners.” 

He said he plans to continue being involved with the community and to remain “tough on violent crime.” 

As the race unfolds, several concerns regarding both parties have been raised by the community. Several members have pointed out that while Cervantez resides in Carbondale, his address falls in Williamson County, rather than Jackson County. 

“The thing about Williamson County is absolutely true,” he said. “People act like I hide that. The address that I live is on my election ballot. I have lived in Carbondale for as long as I can remember – ‘96 – it’s always been my home.” 

He said hundreds of residences are located in Carbondale but fall under a different school district or county. 

“Everybody on the east side of Reed Station Road, everybody over by Crab Orchard, those are all Carbondale neighborhoods that are Williamson County,” he said. “…And to think that law enforcement stops at Reed Station Road, and then everybody from Reed Station Road has to shop at Target in Marion; you know all of our neighbors who are affected by crime in Carbondale, we go to University Place, we eat at Mary Lou’s, we shop at Walmart and Krogers. I enlisted in the Marine Corps in Carbondale, I’ve lived all around Carbondale…This is a non-factor.” 

Cascio-Hale said she has lived in Jackson County for 18 years now, including during her period as Williamson County State’s Attorney, in which she was unable to move due to personal reasons. 

“I got a ton of grief from the Republican Party for not residing in Williamson County,” she said. “And I do think it’s important. I think you want to support the community that you’re serving…that keeps money inside Jackson County, and it also helps you keep your fingers on the pulse…It helps you feel invested in your community.” 

She said the scrutiny was “pretty hurtful” but thinks it was just “the nature of the beast.” 

“I’m proud of living in Jackson County,” she added. “I moved down here in 2006. I fell in love with the area then I fell in love with my husband and bought a house. Jackson County educated my son, SIU educated me…I am invested in the community.” 

Christian Hale, Cascio-Hale’s husband, is running for Jackson County Circuit Clerk. A circuit clerk is an administrative officer responsible for managing court records. 

Cervantez expressed concerns about bias, stating, “I think it’s a huge impropriety and conflict for a husband and wife to have two offices elected in the same county.”  

Cascio-Hale said she does not think there would be a conflict of interest. 

“The state’s attorney is the attorney for the office-holders,” she said. “So if something happened to our treasurer, our county clerk, our sheriff, circuit clerk, coroner, the state’s attorney represents them. So they’re on the same side…When you’re on the same side, there’s no conflict.”

She said if a conflict ever were to arise, a state appellate prosecutor would handle the case. 

As for why citizens should vote for them, each candidate mentioned different traits. 

Cascio-Hale said she values integrity and honesty. 

“I will do things that aren’t being done,” she said. “Getting the cases through the court system, helping the victims, making sure that they have the ability to boost themselves back up.”

She added that Jackson County is a great place, and that in order to improve its faults, the community must work together. 

Cervantez, on the other hand, said he values transparency. 

“I want to keep my office open to the community, and I want to continue working with community groups, and I think that I’ve done my job,” he said. 

He added, “I have the experience to be tough on violent crime [and] we need that right now…Ultimately this is not a political office, this is a public safety office.” 

Election day will occur on Nov. 5, 2024. Early voting is currently available. For information regarding in-person voting opportunities or absentee ballot applications, visit jacksoncounty-il.gov. 

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