So go ahead and first introduce yourself what you're running for and your background. Alright, I'm John Sanders. I'm a circuit judge here in Wingson County. I'm Mary Damie Sanders, as you know, as a longtime school administrator with Marion School District. We have two sons. Our oldest David is also an attorney and an officer with a National Guard. And our youngest son is Nicholas, who's an S.I.U. graduate student. I am a circuit judge and I'm up for the position this November to fill the vacancy of Carolyn Smooth. So what did you want to continue this because you've been the judge since 2016, right? By this, correct. Well, it was never a lifelong ambition of mine to be a judge. I enjoyed private practice. I enjoyed meeting clients, getting ready for court for 28 years. I did that. But as each position, a judicial position come open. People would say to me, John, why aren't you running for judge? You would make a good judge. And then when Judge Smooth retired, I applied, turned in my application. I was fortunate to be appointed by the Supreme Court to the position I've held for over a year and a half. And I can say I've enjoyed every day of getting up, going to court. I'm in court every single day. I'm on the bench. I'm scheduled to be on the bench every hour. And it's been quite a pleasure. So is that what you contribute to meeting the requirements, maybe more so over your opponent? Well, I don't know if this is over my opponent, but I certainly have, I'm a lifelong resident of Williamson County. I've been in practice for 28 years. I've been on attorney for 30 years. I joke, I am the oldest candidate running in all the elections. I have the experience. I've tried cases all throughout Southern Illinois and mainly have represented clients in Williamson County. Now, integrity and ethical conduct are part of this position. So how do you hold yourself accountable in these four? Well, integrity is very important to be a judge. You have to have the most highest integrity and ethical standards. I'm very proud for 30 years. I have never had a complaint brought against me by the ARDC. The ARDC is the governing body of attorneys. I've represented hundreds and hundreds of clients. And I have never had a complaint brought against me by the ARDC about my handling of my clients or how I treated the other parties or whether how I treated other attorneys. I'm very proud of that. What are specific issues or concerns addressing Southern Illinois in the first judicial circuit? Well, there's a lot of issues, as you know. A lot of problems, whether it be our escalating crime, we're a large county. We're almost 70,000 people in Williamson County. We're approaching and having such issues with the opioid crisis. But I deal with family. Court, I'm the judge overseas divorces and custody. And a problem that I see on a regular basis, it's something that's very important to me is the failure to pay child support. A parent not taking care of their child. And those who come before me know how important that issue is to me. I will give you an example. But here, not too long ago, I had a parent who was not paying their child support. And yet he was living with his father. And I looked at him, I said, I want you to soak in. Here you are, living with your elderly father. He's providing you a roof over your house. He's providing you with food. He's paying your car payment. Yet you as a young man, a young father, are not taking care of your children. I said, I want that to soak in. And I repeated it. And he started to tear up and said, I understand. I said, well, as a general rule, I'm going to make you understand. So I have them look for a job. Try to get a job. And if they're not doing it, they'll have dire consequences. So that's a small issue. But it's certainly an issue that a lot of parents are having to struggle with is when the other parent doesn't help them out. So how has your background then prepared you for this position? We know you've held it since 2016, but even further. Well, certainly I tried. I've been trying cases since 1988. I've been our firm. I was the partner in Sanders and Sanders, along with my brother and my father before he passed away. Our firm has been in Wemeson County for 65 years when I became a judge. I had a close, a 65-year practice. I tried all kinds of cases, whether it be custody cases, complex litigation cases, property line disputes, every civil law case I have tried. I also was involved in my community. As you know, I was served on the John A. Logan board for 18 years. I was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Education. Education is very important to our family and to myself. And so all that has helped me be prepared to serve on the bench. And I've brought that knowledge and skill with me as a judge. You gave an example earlier. Could you give another example of where judges can act impartial? Yes. Well, impartiality is vital. You have to not only does a judge need to be impartial, the people who come before a judge must know the judges impartial. When they appear before me, I make it clear. I don't care whether you're the father or the mother of a child, what you're raised, what your nationality, your sexual orientation is. None of that matters. I want to treat each one of you the same. I want to treat you with respect, with courtesy. And I'm going to afford you a fair trial. And then if you don't follow what I say, then I'm going to come down hard on you just the same no matter who you are. Okay. Now we're seeing in a lot of, especially the small southern Illinois counties where a lot of them cost has been an issue in debt. How can you control in your position cost, keeping costs down for the counties? Well, there's two things. First, the cost of running a courthouse is expensive. Rather it'd be on the prosecutorial side, the state's attorney making sure people are abiding by our laws, that's expensive. And also the cost for defending indigent people. It's important that people have access to justice. We don't want to deny anybody from having a fair trial. Likewise, the costs are high to come to courts, the filing fees. And the Supreme Court has been very conscientious of the costs, the filing fees. We as judges are very conscientious. Every day I look at applications of people seeking to waive the filing fees. And I look at whether they're employed, whether they receive state assistance. We don't want to deny anybody from access to justice simply because they don't have the financial resources. Is there a way for your office to cut some costs from the cost to this? We try to streamline, move the cases along. I've got a very busy docket. Like I say, I handle the family law, the divorces and the family cases. One way is to try to move these cases along so they don't linger in the judicial system. I bring the parties before me on a regular basis to see, are you ready to trial? Are you ready to go? I had over 550 new cases come before me last year. And we're on pace to have over 600 new divorces and custody cases. That's amazing to me. I'm dealing with those new cases and all these other cases that are not resolved. So it's important for me to move them along. And that will help streamline the costs. That's a small thing. But the more that we can get the cases through the judicial system, the less costs that will be. So would you say that economics plays a role in the judicial impact? Oh, it does. We just don't have a lot of control over that. The lot of the costs are maintained by the Circuit Clerk's office. But we're fortunate in Winson County. We are healthy financially. We have five judges right now. Hopefully we'll have six judges here. That will help move things along a little bit better, too. I want to talk about temperament. So tell me about the personality that you bring to the courtroom. Well, I hope I bring a serious tone, but also lighthearted. I am known for telling jokes every once in a while. I explained to the parties who come before me that this is a pretty pence courtroom. It's scary to come into the court house. You know, you usually only come once or twice into a courtroom. And I try to make them feel at ease, make them comfortable, and I explain to them. It's important to have a little levity in the courtroom. And I also will tell them it's important to have a little levity as your children become teenagers.