With 91.8% of expected votes counted, Democrat Mariyana Spyropoulos is projected to win the race for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk, defeating Republican Lupe Aguirre and Libertarian Michael Murphy. Spyropoulos has received 66.5% of the vote.
The Chicago Tribune called the race at 9:47 p.m., using data from the Associated Press.
In the March Democratic primary, Spyropoulos ousted incumbent Iris Martinez, the first Latina Cook County Circuit Court Clerk.
Spyropoulos is a former assistant state’s attorney from Chicago’s South Side with a law degree from UIC Law and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago. From 2015 to 2019, she served as president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners.
Spyropoulos believes the clerk’s office suffers from a lack of transparency and failure to modernize, according to her website. An advocate for government transparency, fiscal responsibility and environmental stewardship, she aims to “improve the use of technology in the office, bring the courts to the communities to increase access to justice, and make the office more transparent and ethical.”
Aguirre, a former Chicago police officer and attorney, has received 27.1% of the vote. He does not appear to have a campaign website.
Murphy, who has received 6.5% of the vote, works in information technology systems administration. He centered his campaign around increasing transparency and accountability and breaking down barriers preventing the Freedom of Information Act from being implemented within the office.
In a statement to The Daily, Murphy called his showing “a significant achievement” for the Libertarian Party in Cook County.
“I want to thank everyone for all the hard work that got us here,” Murphy said. “Being anything but a Democrat in Cook County is already hard enough, let alone being from a third party. I want to thank everyone who voted for me and realized that we can only change Cook County if we don’t vote for one of the major parties.”
In March, Spyropoulos handily defeated incumbent Martinez after receiving the blessing of the county Democratic Party. Though Martinez had pushed to improve record-keeping during her term, the incumbent drew brickbats for apparent data mishandling.
Critics also highlighted a Tribune report that found Martinez’s campaign received contributions from her office’s employees, despite her pledge to improve a position long known for patronage and scandal.
Shun Graves contributed reporting.
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