County Clerk David Orr S Reform Talk Annoys Another Mayor

In honor of his 35th year as an elected official, Cook County clerk David Orr did what he does best: he irritated the hell out of a powerful mayor.

To understand the context of Orr’s latest TIF proposal, you have to go back to 1979, when the clerk began his political career.

Apparently, Hartigan wanted to prove that the machine had eggheads too.

Orr won by 700 votes. Take a bow, Rogers Park.

There was brief moment of democracy in 1983 when—hallelujah!—voters got it together and elected Harold Washington as their mayor.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the day Mayor Washington died,” says Orr. “I was inspecting this problematic bar that had been giving the neighborhood trouble. Those were the days before cell phones, of course. So I didn’t know that Mayor Washington had died until I got to my office and they said, ‘Change your clothes and get downtown.’”