“Dumbing-down” is a phrase that usually describes taking a job for which one is grossly over-qualified, as opposed to simply qualified or even under-qualified.

In politics, “dumbing-down” describes the phenomenon whereby a candidate runs for a markedly less-visible public office, after having been defeated in a quest for a more prominent position, so as to enable him or her to run for higher office again.

In 1998, the dumber-downer was Republican Al Salvi. After waging a spirited but losing campaign for U.S. Senator in 1996, Salvi chose to run for Illinois Secretary of State in 1998 – a largely ministerial office having no relation to federal issues. Voters saw this ploy as a desperately transparent attempt to win any office, so as to give him a platform to run for Senator again. And they rejected Salvi overwhelmingly.

In 2004, the dumber-downer is Republican John Cox, an erstwhile suburbanite who has moved into Chicago, and is now president of the Cook County Republican Party. Cox was a loser for U.S. Representative in the 2000 suburban North Shore 10th District Republican primary, finishing fifth (in a field of 11) with 10.1 percent; and Cox was a loser for U.S. Senator in the 2002 Republican primary, finishing third (in a field of three) with 22.8 percent. Now Cox is the Republican nominee for Cook County Recorder of Deeds.

Cox vociferously denies that he’s in a desperation mode. “I’m running (for Recorder) because there’s tremendous waste, corruption and inefficiency in the office in particular, and in Cook County government in general. And I’m running because I want to build the Republican Party,” he said.

The last time a Republican was elected Recorder was in 1928, which means a Democrat has won the last 18 elections for the office, and it will be 19 straight after 2004. Is the office really necessary? As Cox points out, only 22 of Illinois’ 102 counties have recorders, with the other 80 handling the job through their assessor.  But Cox is the proverbial optimist, and looks at the bright side: the obscure Cook County Recorder’s office has, of late, been a launching pad to major office. Democrat Carol Moseley Braun, after one unexceptional term in this ministerial job (1988-92), got herself elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, and served one tempestuous term. And her successor, Democrat Jesse White (1992-98), got himself elected Illinois Secretary of State in 1998, beating the controversial Salvi.

The current incumbent is Gene Moore, of Maywood, who was appointed by the Cook County Board in 1999 to replace White – primarily because he had the backing of Cook County Board president John Stroger. Like his two predecessors, Moore, age 62, is black; and like his two predecessors, he was a state representative, serving from 1993 until 1999. But, unlike Braun and White, Moore has hit his political zenith, and can consider himself fortunate if he can squeeze out a couple more terms as recorder. Moore won’t be contending for any higher office, either countywide or statewide.

Moore is the current Democratic Committeeman from west suburban Proviso Township, which includes Maywood, Bellwood, Hillside, Broadview, Forest Park, Beverly, Broadview, Westchester, and LaGrange Park. Once overwhelmingly Italian-American, the township is now majority-black, with Maywood over 90 percent black. In 1998, Moore took on sitting Committeeman Gary Marinaro, who is white, and beat him 6,883-3,935.

Second only to south suburban Thornton Township, Proviso generates a huge Democratic primary vote. It cast 21,242 primary votes in 2004, 13,898 in 2000, 12,543 in 1996, and 20,337 in 1992. With that kind of voter base, and having ousted Marinaro, Moore laid claim to the Recorder’s job in 1998, after White’s statewide win. White, however, wanted to hand off the job to his deputy, Darlena Williams-Burnett, wife of 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett, who is White’s protégé; White is also the 27th Ward Democratic Committeeman. So a deal was cut with Stroger: Moore got the job, and Williams-Burnett stayed as deputy. “That’s an example of nepotism,” said Cox.

The Recorder’s office has an annual budget of approximately $13 million, and employs 275. It’s not the kind of job where the occupant can build a political machine – like the assessor, with vast money-raising capability, or the sheriff, with vast numbers of jobs. In addition, Moore’s political base in Proviso is quite shaky. In 2000, Moore’s ally, State Representative Wanda Sharp, lost the Democratic primary to Karen Yarbrough by 5,733-5,435 after having been indicted in 1999 on six counts of perjury and six counts of mutilation of election materials, stemming from her 1998 campaign. After her defeat, Sharp was found not guilty on the charges.

In 2002, Yarbrough challenged Moore for committeeman, and Moore prevailed 9,073-7,911 – hardly an impressive margin. Yet Moore will prevail over Cox this year, probably by an impressive margin.

Over 1.3 million documents are recorded annually by Moore’s office, and those filings relate to real estate transactions, including deeds, liens, and mortgages. Until recently, it would take several weeks after filing to “post” the document on the Recorder’s computerized directory, and another two months to return the original document to the filer. Because of delays and errors in the Recorder’s office, many title companies created their own storage system, paying the Recorder to give them a copy of every filing, rather than rely on the Recorder’s own storage. That’s recently changed, as the Recorder now has a scanning system, whereby the document is inserted into the system upon filing, and returned immediately to the filer.

It should be remembered that a computerized log of recorded filings did not commence until 1990, with the property index number (PIN) used to control access to data. Prior to that, the now-abolished Torrens system logged every transaction, by typewriter, onto a 12-inch by 36-inch certificate. With the explosion of property transactions in the 1970s and 1980s, it took up to six years to insert information on the certificates, so title companies had to establish their own system to monitor property conveyances.

“In DuPage County, a document is scanned into the system, microfilmed, and returned within two weeks,” said Cox, who noted that DuPage County employs just 33 people in its Recorder’s office, as contrasted with Cook County’s 275. “That’s a form of corruption,” said Cox. “When a public official makes decisions which adversely affect the taxpayer, and cost the taxpayer money, and when he wouldn’t have made that same decision for himself, that’s corruption. There are too many people in the (Recorder’s) office doing too little work.”

Cox also promised that, if elected, he would make all Recorder’s documents available on-line, so that people “can check their chain-of-title, or any title.” He also promised cut the budget, cut the number of employees, and to establish a “blue-ribbon commission” to work with title companies to “make the Recorder the unassailable source” for all real estate transactions. Despite repeated requests, Moore’s press secretary in the Recorder’s office failed to provide any information as to Moore’s accomplishments over the past six years.

Moore, however, got a spate of publicity last June when it was revealed that his office paid $55,000 in fees to several Springfield lobbyists to help kill a bill which would have added $10 to every document recorded in Illinois, with that sum being allocated to off-set rents for low-income families. Earlier in the year, the County Board had voted 15-1 to hire lobbyists to work to pass the bill. “He (Moore) breached his fiduciary responsibility” to county taxpayers, fumed one commissioner. Moore offered no explanation for his actions, and Stroger defended him, but that fiasco is sure to haunt Moore when he seeks renomination in 2008.

Interestingly, Republicans have come close to winning the Recorder’s job on several occasions over the past three decades. In 1980, after four office employees were convicted on federal misdemeanor charges of taking “bribes” to provide priority service, incumbent Democrat Sid Olsen likened the bribes to “tips paid to a barber.” Olsen, first elected in 1960 after ten years as Criminal Court clerk, barely defeated Republican Gene Salamon, who campaigned on an “anti-corruption” theme, by 76,025 votes (52 percent).

In 1984, Olsen retired, and his administrative aide, Harry “Bus” Yourell, an Oak Lawn state representative, was slated to succeed him. Despite allegations that Yourell was just a party hack, he won with 61.3 percent. But in 1988, after an inauspicious term, Yourell was dumped, and replaced by Carol Moseley Braun. The Republican was Alderman Berny Stone (50th), who had switched parties. Braun had solid support in the black community, but Stone was strong elsewhere, and she won with just 54 percent. In 1992, Braun ran statewide, and was replaced by White, who won the primary with just 40 percent.

In the 1992 election, against Republican Susan Catania, who ran as a “reformer” in the so-called “Year of the Woman,” White won with 57 percent. White upped that to 65 percent in 1996. And Moore, against an unknown Republican in 2000, upped that to 72.8 percent.

My prediction: Of the three Republican unknowns running for countywide office in 2004, Cox is the least unknown. He will get at least 32 percent. But Moore won’t get another term in 2008. There are too many ambitious black Democrats who want to use the Recorder’s office as a steppingstone; they will no longer tolerate Moore’s using the job as a capstone. In fact, don’t be surprised if Moore is ousted as township committeeman in 2006 – a prelude to his departure as Recorder in 2008.