Democrat frontrunner Monica Gordon faces two little known opponents in the race for Cook County clerk.
Gordon is a first-term commissioner on the county board, representing a district that stretches from the tip of the south suburbs to the far South Side.
Gordon is up against Republican Michelle Pennington, who is backed by the Cook County GOP and running for public office for the first time, and Libertarian Christopher Laurent, who is chairman of the 14th Police District Council.
The clerk oversees suburban elections and some of the most important records in the county, from birth and death certificates to marriage licenses and property deeds.
The candidates are aiming to fill the two years left on the late Clerk Karen Yarbrough’s term. Gordon has long ties to state lawmakers in Springfield and is backed by influential unions and the Cook County Democratic Party.
Gordon far outraised her opponents, with around $97,000 in her campaign fund as of Sept. 30, according to her most recent quarterly report. In a sign of how little financial help Gordon’s campaign needs, records show her campaign fund transferred about $20,000 in late September to the Cook County Democratic Party.
The party planned to use the money to mail campaign literature to potential voters with a focus on electing Vice President Kamala Harris for president, said Jacob Kaplan, executive director of the Democratic Party. Eileen O’Neill Burke, the Democratic candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, contributed $20,000 to the Democratic Party toward Harris mailers, too, campaign finance records show.
Pennington had about $2,800 on hand as of Sept. 30, according to her most recent quarterly report. Laurent said he’s raised around $2,000.
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk election
In a separate countywide race, Democrat Mariyana Spyropoulos, a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board, faces Republican Lupe Aguirre and Libertarian Michael Murphy to become the next clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court.
The circuit court clerk oversees one of the largest circuit court systems in the nation, with tens of millions of documents and around 1,400 workers. The clerk’s role is mostly administrative. The circuit court houses everything from criminal cases to divorce filings, but this office is fiercely political.
Spyropoulos defeated incumbent clerk Iris Martinez in the March primary to become the Democratic challenger in the Nov. 5 election. Spyropoulos is an attorney who poured more than $1 million of her own money into the primary. The Democratic Party backed Spyropoulos rather than incumbent Democrat Martinez after Martinez ruffled feathers in a party that thrives on loyalty.
Kristen Schorsch covers public health and Cook County government for WBEZ.