Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine and Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, both Democrats, are running for re-election in 2004, but they may soon be running against each other for a much bigger prize -- the Chicago mayoralty, in 2007 or later.

Both Devine, who is white, and Brown, who is black, had competition in the March Democratic primary, and both won convincingly. Both face desultory Republican opposition on Nov. 2, and both are expected to win overwhelmingly. And, should Mayor Rich Daley retire in 2007, or even in 2011, expect both to run for the vacancy.

Devine, age 61, is a longtime protege of Daley, and he has been state's attorney since 1996, when he beat Republican incumbent Jack O'Malley. Devine was Daley's first assistant during part of the 9 years when Daley was the state's attorney. Devine won an upset in 1996 with just 47.7 percent of the vote, defeating O'Malley and two black candidates. He was renominated in 2000 without opposition, and he won the election with 78.6 percent of the vote.

Brown, age 51, an attorney and onetime general auditor of the CTA, won a racially focused 2000 primary for clerk, defeating three white candidates, including 45th Ward Alderman Pat Levar. Brown's overwhelming vote in Chicago's black-majority wards and in the suburban black-majority townships was instrumental in her 48.4-27.5 percent triumph over Levar.

If Daley, age 62, retires, Devine, along with Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan and Cook County Sheriff Mike Sheahan, rank as the most acceptable white compromise candidates -- as somebody who could serve a term or two as mayor while the post-Daley situation settles and a "new generation" white candidate emerges. In such an eventuality, Brown, along with U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., would rank as the most prominent black contenders; and U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez and former city treasurer Miriam Santos would rank as the most prominent Hispanic contenders. And at least one other white candidate, City Clerk Jim Laski, certainly would run.

It must be noted that Chicago's population, according to the 2000 census, is 44 percent white, 37 percent black and 19 percent Hispanic; and that whites are a majority of the voting population in both Chicago and in Cook County. Therefore, in a post-Daley era, while multiple candidates would run in the February primary, a white-black runoff would surely ensue, and the victory of a white candidate over a black candidate would be likely.

Cook County's top prosecutor's position is a somewhat dubious launching pad for a Chicago mayoral bid. The late Mayor Richard J. Daley exerted a Herculean -- and successful -- effort to beat Democrat-turned-Republican State's Attorney Ben Adamowski (1956-60) in 1960; even after his defeat, Adamowski ran a strong but losing race for mayor in 1963. Daley anointed Ed Hanrahan (1968-72) to be state's attorney in 1968, but then abandoned him in 1972, after he got enmeshed in controversy concerning a raid which killed some Black Panthers. Hanrahan lost to Republican Bernard Carey in 1972, but he nevertheless ran for mayor in 1975, getting 5 percent of the vote, and in 1977, after Daley died, getting 3.9 percent.

And young Daley, attempting to position himself as a rival to Mayor Jane Byrne, ran for state's attorney in 1980, winning the Democratic primary over Byrne-backed Alderman Ed Burke by 413,544-246,392 -- a solid 63 percent victory.

Daley ran for mayor in 1983, getting 29.8 percent of the vote (343,506 votes), to Byrne's 33.5 percent (386,456) and Harold Washington's 419,266 (36.3 percent). Many blamed Daley for splitting the white vote and electing Washington. But after Washington died in 1987, Daley emerged as the dominant white candidate in the 1989 special election, and he won the Democratic primary with 55.8 percent of the vote and the election with 57.2 percent.

Per capita crime has been on a steady decline, with violent crime having decreased by 55 percent nationwide over the past decade and property crime by 45 percent. So, nationally, there's less crime, and fewer criminals to prosecute. Devine's office, like his predecessors, has a high conviction rate, but many convictions are plea bargains involving reduced charges and lesser sentences. Devine has generated headlines with his investigation into the 2003 fire at the County Administration Building in the Loop which killed six people, and he has criticized the lack of fire code compliance at other county high-rise offices. He also called for renewal of the ban on the sale of assault weapons, which expired Sept. 13, claiming that such weapons are "used to go after people, not game."

During his two terms, Devine has been a consistent advocate of the death penalty, but he did create a new DNA unit to monitor and review the testing of all defendants convicted of murder. He also filed a civil suit against several gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers, alleging that they illegally sold handguns, and he quickly pursued criminal charges in the Glenbrook North High School hazing incident.

So, if he runs for mayor, Devine can boast of being pro-death penalty, pro-gun control and "tough on crime." But there will be a handful of cases which will be resurrected and rehashed in the media.

For example, Devine's prosecutors recently bungled the case involving the alleged reckless vehicular homicide of jogger Ann Monaco, who was struck by a drunk driver in Oak Park. Instead of getting up to 14 years in prison, the truck driver was acquitted, due to the prosecution's failure to introduce credible evidence. Then there's the Ryan Harris case, in which two black youths were charged with murder but then exonerated after DNA testing. Some black politicians accused the police of mistreating the suspects and demanded that Devine prosecute the alleged culprits, but he refused. And there's Jeremiah Mearday, who was beaten in a lockup by two police officers, who were later fired. Devine refused to prosecute them.

And finally there's former Chicago police commander Jon Burge, who was accused of allowing suspects to be tortured in his Area 2 and Area 3 lockups. Burge was fired in 1993. Now there is a civil case pending, and the plaintiffs' lawyers have accused Devine and Daley of "covering up" Burge's alleged crimes.

Without question, these cases will undermine Devine's appeal in the black community, and perhaps among liberal white voters.

In the March primary, Devine faced Tommy Brewer, a black former state official, and trounced him 488,352-128,031. Most of Brewer's vote came from the black-majority areas, and about half of the overall black vote went to Devine. That wouldn't happen in a face-off against Brown or Jackson.

Brown faced a tough 2004 primary challenge from former judge Jerry Orbach, who claimed that the 2,300-job clerk's office was in a "state of cardiac arrest." Brown was hammered in a series of newspaper articles regarding the fact that her employees bought over $220,000 worth of tickets to her fund raisers, with current or former employees complaining that they were "pressured" to do so. Brown responded that all donations were "voluntary." Orbach compared Brown's "ticket frenzy" to George Ryan's.

But the primary outcome indicated that voters didn't much care. Brown, running up margins of 6-1 or greater in the black wards and townships, trounced Orbach 452,350-158,726 -- getting a stunning 74 percent of the vote. That was more than twice the 216,631 votes (48.4 percent) that she received in 2000.

Brown ran for clerk in 2000 as a reformer, and Orbach's attacks clearly failed to diminish her luster. Should she run for mayor, Brown will be attacked again for politicizing, not professionalizing, the office. But the 2004 primary demonstrated that Brown's political base is solid and that she would be a formidable contender for mayor.