Dorothy Brown Decides Not To Run For Re-Election To 5th Term

CHICAGO — Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown said Wednesday she will not seek a fifth term after two decades in charge of keeping court records in one of the world's largest court systems. Her office has been under federal investigation for more than six years amid allegations of job selling and the conviction of two of her aides for lying to investigators, but Brown has not been charged with a crime. Her announcement comes one day before the Cook Count Democratic Party will begin the process of picking a candidate to endorse in next March's primary.

Brown, 65, said she was certain she would have won if she had run again, according to Politico, which first reported her decision not to seek re-election. Brown will have spent 20 years as a government official and will be eligible for a pension after leaving office.

"It’s time to do something new, and go to an even higher level," Brown told the website. The clerk said she intends to apply her "financial, technology and legal skills in the for-profit arena."

Earlier this week a spokesperson for Brown declined to comment about her re-election plans to WBEZ, which reported the clerk skipped the party's pre-slating meeting in June. Brown had less than $5,300 in her campaign fund at the end of June, according to the most recent quarterly report filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections by Friends of Dorothy Brown.

According to her official biography, Brown grew up on a Louisiana cotton farm, worked as a housekeeper through high school and spent a summer working on a paint assembly line in Niles while at college. She later became an accountant and an auditor while earning a law degree at night.

Brown ran for Chicago treasurer in 1999 and lost before winning election to the circuit court clerk's office the following year. She challenged former Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2007, coming in second with 20 percent of the vote.

Ahead of the 2016 election, the Cook County Democratic Party withdrew its endorsement of Brown after the FBI seized her cell phone. Nonetheless, Brown earned 45 percent of the vote in the party's primary, defeating her nearest challenger by nearly 15 points and went on to defeat a Republican in the general election with 57 percent of the vote.

In April 2018, Brown announced plans to run for mayor again. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel had not yet disclosed he would not pursue a third term, with observers telling the Chicago Sun-Times it may have been a move to raise money for a legal defense. In January, the Chicago Board of Election kicked Brown off the ballot following a challenge by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

"My legacy will be that I have been a strong, formidable political figure in this town despite of attempts of my naysayers," Brown told the Chicago Tribune. She told the Sun-Times she was an "operations efficiency expert" and blamed racism and disgruntled employees she had fired for the allegations against her. Brown "scoffed" when asked if her decision to leave office after next year's election was part of a deal with federal prosecutors to avoid facing corruption charges, according to the Sun-Times.

At least one former employee told federal investigators it was common knowledge that the "going rate" to buy one of the 1,700 jobs in her office was $10,000.

Ex-staffer Sivasubrami Rajaram pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about how he bought his job using a phony $15,000 loan to Goat Masters Corporation, a company whose president was Brown's husband, Benton Cook, who has also not been charged with a crime. Rajaram was sentenced to three years of probation in February 2017.

In May 2017, Beena Patel, a top aide to Brown who supervised hundreds of workers, was indicted on charges she lied to a federal grand jury. She took the case to trial, and jurors found her guilty in April after less than four hours of deliberations. Patel is due to be sentenced in November. Her lawyer said she was made a "scapegoat" due to the failure of federal law enforcement to bring any charges against Brown.

The four candidates seeking the Cook County Democratic Party's endorsement in the primary include Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Michael Cabonargi, 20th District State Sen. Iris Martinez, attorney and past candidate for clerk Jacob Meister and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Mariyana Spyropoulos.

Earlier:

• $10,000 Buys A Job In Clerk Dorothy Brown's Office: Court Filing
• Ex-Dorothy Brown Employee Sentenced For Lying About 'Goat Masters'
• Debt Collector Bribed Dorothy Brown's Office For Business: Feds
• Federal Judge Orders Cook County To Fix Electronic Record Access
• Dorothy Brown Announces Second Mayoral Bid