CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The two major party candidates vying to replace retiring Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown seem to have different backgrounds, but similar goals.
Democrat Iris Martinez and Republican Barbara Bellar agree on one thing. As Bellar said, the Circuit Court Clerk’s office is woefully in need of reform.
"They still use a lot of carbon paper copies, instead of digital solutions; and they still need to maximize technology," Bellar said.
Democratic State Senator Iris Martinez said it is even worse.
"You talk about a warehouse that has over a million cases that they believe have been microfilmed or digitized, why is that?" she said.
She said she’ll bring a new vision to the technically lagging Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s office.
"Job one I think is an audit of the office itself. Really trying to see where and how we can finally open this office to transparency, a transformation, a cultural change from within," Martinez said.
Republican Barbara Bellar, a Burr Ridge foctor and lawyer, said she’s experienced the delays of the clerk's office first hand and feels Democrats have failed that operation.
"To have further, my opponent following the same atmosphere of what has happened by having Democrats in those administrative offices that it is just time for honesty to enter," she said.
Bellar said she is the one who can change things, and Cook County should not have only Republican elected officials.
"I feel I can bring a breath of fresh air to the position and a foundation of transparency," she said.
State Senator Martinez said her experience in government has the advantage.
"To me, bringing that experience to the parks office gives me also an opportunity to continue to not be at that entrance of when people's paperwork is filed," she said.
Martinez was not the Democratic Party’s slated candidate. She defeated Michael Carbonargi, the endorsed candidate, in the Primary.
Both candidates promise transparency.