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Iris Martinez

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Iris Y. Martinez
Martinez in 2011
Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County
In office
December 1, 2020 – December 1, 2024
Preceded byDorothy Brown
Succeeded byMariyana T. Spyropoulos
Member of the Illinois Senate
from the 20th district
In office
January 8, 2003 – November 2020
Preceded byPeter Roskam (redistricted)
Succeeded byCristina Pacione-Zayas
Personal details
Born (1956-02-25) February 25, 1956 (age 68)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationNortheastern Illinois University (BA)
University of Illinois, Chicago

Iris Y. Martinez (born February 25, 1956) is an American politician and administrator. In 2020, she was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. She previously served as a member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 20th district from 2003 until becoming clerk. A member of the Democratic Party, she rose to Assistant Majority Leader in the State Senate. As court clerk and as a state senator, she is the first Latina to have held either of those offices.

Early life

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Martinez is a graduate of Northeastern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Senate career

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Martinez was the first Latina woman to be elected to the Illinois State Senate.[1] In her first year in Springfield, Martinez ensured that community agencies like the Children's Place, an agency that works with children and families affected by HIV and AIDS, and Concordia Avondale Community Center, which provides daycare, after-school programs and a center for seniors, received state funding to continue their programming. In 2003 Martinez sponsored legislation, introduced by then-Representative Sara Feigenholtz and later signed into law by Governor Rod Blagojevich, that requires health insurance companies to provide women with contraceptive coverage.[2] In recognition of this legislation, Martinez received the Profile in Courage Award from Planned Parenthood.[citation needed] Martinez targeted Illinois drivers with out of state reckless homicide and DUI convictions with the passage of a new law. This law ensures that convictions received in other states are included in Illinois driving records and subject to state laws regarding further prosecution of these offences. To help protect consumers from becoming victims of identity theft, Martinez helped pass a law that requires all insurance cards be issued without a Social Security number.[citation needed]

In 2004, Martinez was awarded the Hillary Clinton Leadership Award, presented to an elected official by the Illinois Democratic Women's organization. Martinez was the Chairperson of the Pensions Committee and Vice Chairperson of the Housing and Community Affairs Committee, and was a member of three additional committees: Commerce, Health and Human Services, and Insurance.[citation needed]

In 2006, Martinez endorsed judicial candidate Ramon Ocasio III over the Cook County Democratic Party endorsed candidate, Ed Lechowicz, the son of former State Senator Ted Lechowicz, saying she did so to increase the number of Latinos on the Cook County judiciary.[3]

In 2008, Martinez faced a primary challenge from state representative Richard T. Bradley, who represented half of her district in the House. Bradley had originally announced his intention to seek re-election to his former seat in the Illinois House but decided instead to challenge Martinez when Deb Mell announced her candidacy for his House seat. Martinez was re-elected, defeating Bradley and another candidate.

In 2018, J. B. Pritzker appointed Martinez to Powering Illinois' Future transition committee, which is responsible for infrastructure and clean energy policies.[4]

After her election to serve as the Clerk of the Circuit Court, local party leaders appointed Cristina Pacione-Zayas to the seat.[5]

Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County

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On August 14, 2019, Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown announced that she would not seek reelection in 2020. Martinez later announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination for Circuit Clerk. Despite not being endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party, Martinez won the primary with 33.73% of the vote and 50,000 more votes than party-endorsed candidate Michael Cabonargi. In addition to failing to receive the party's endorsement in the primary, she had also failed to receive other notable endorsements. Consequentially, her primary victory was regarded as an upset.[6]

Martinez won the general election and was sworn in on December 1, 2020. She is the first Latina to serve in the position, and the second woman of color to hold the position.[1]

Soon after taking office, Martinez complained about the state of the office she inherited from Dorothy Brown. In response, Brown released a statement that was highly critical of Martinez.[7]

In November 2022, Martinez announced that the office of the clerk of courts had been relieved of federal oversight of its hiring and employment practices. The office had been under this oversight since August 2018 during the tenure of her predecessor.[8]

Since assuming the office of Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Martinez has come under fire for her office's hiring practices and use of political patronage. In March 2022, WBEZ reported that Martinez's office hired a former City of Evanston human resources director who was facing disciplinary review for "mishandling of sexual misconduct complaints from teenage girls and young women who worked at the city's beaches" and was found to be "primarily at fault for Evanston's yearlong delay in looking into the "pervasive" harassment and abuse suffered by lifeguards and other beach workers."[9]

In December 2022, the Chicago Tribune reported that 23 employees of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County's office hired by Iris Martinez performed political work for the 33rd Ward aldermanic campaign of Samie Martinez, a political protégé of Martinez, raising concerns about machine influence on the race.[10]

In March 2022, Martinez hosted Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 7 president John Catanzara, a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump, at a fundraiser for her ward political organization.[11] Martinez also accepted $7,000 in campaign contributions from Catanzara's FOP Lodge 7.[12] Later that year, she endorsed Erin Jones, a Northwest Side GOP Club committeeman and supporter of Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election, in a Democratic party primary for State Senate as part of a slate of candidates backed by both Martinez and the FOP.[13][14][15] Martinez's support from and for MAGA Republican figures running in Democratic primaries drew sharp criticism from local progressive organizations.[11] In June 2022, the FOP slate suffered "landslide" losses in the Democratic primaries, and Martinez lost her Democratic Party State Central Committee seat to Delia Ramirez.[16]

In January 2023, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that "more than 50 employees of Cook County Clerk of Court Iris Martinez" were under investigation for allegedly defrauding the federal Paycheck Protection Program loan program "intended to help small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic."[17] By April, "dozens" of these employees had been fired or otherwise resigned.[18]

In May 2023, WBEZ reported that the Clerk's office under Martinez had been erroneously putting felonies on the records of people who had successfully completed diversion programs for a period of at least 3 years, resulting in losses of housing, employment, and education opportunities for victims of the mistakes. After first being contacted by WBEZ, Martinez's office accepted responsibility for the issue and claimed to have already corrected it, but when notified of examples of erroneous felony records still existing the office deflected blame onto Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans.[19]

In February 2024, Illinois Answers Project reported that the Clerk's office under Martinez violated Illinois juvenile court laws by exposing the personal data of at least 5,000 children, leaving the information publicly available for nearly two weeks. In response to the breach, Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell characterized Martinez's tenure as Clerk as "an out-and-out, complete failure to operate the system."[20] While the Clerk's office itself "did not dispute that the data exposure violated the state’s juvenile court laws," Martinez characterized the report as "lies and misinformation."[21]

Martinez failed to win reelection in 2024, losing the Democratic primary to Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Mariyana T. Spyropoulos.[22]

Democratic Party leadership roles

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Martinez was elected to the Democratic Party of Illinois State Central Committee in 2002, and to the Cook County Democratic Party Committee in 2020.[citation needed] In 2022, she lost her seat on the Democratic Party State Committee to Delia Ramirez.[16] In 2024, she was defeated in her bid for re-election as 33rd Ward Democratic Committeeperson by Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez[23]

Electoral history

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State Senate

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2002
2002 Illinois State Senate 20th district Democratic Primary[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez 13,839 61.51
Democratic Michael A. Wojcik 8,660 38.49
Total votes 22,499 100
2002 Illinois State Senate 20th district election[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez 26,410 100
Total votes 26,410 100
2004
2004 Illinois State Senate 20th district Democratic Primary[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 14,164 100
Total votes 14,164 100
2004 Illinois State Senate 20th district election[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 38,815 100
Total votes 38,815 100
2008
2008 Illinois State Senate 20th district Democratic Primary[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 13,649 51.25
Democratic Richard T. Bradley 11,128 41.78
Democratic Carlos Juan Guevara 1,857 6.97
Total votes 26,634 100
2008 Illinois State Senate 20th district election[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 42,310 100
Total votes 42,310 100
2012
2012 Illinois State Senate 20th district Democratic Primary[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 10,429 100
Total votes 10,429 100
2012 Illinois State Senate 20th district election[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 47,688 99.85
Write-In Lawrence "Larry" Ligas 73 0.15
Total votes 47,761 100
2016
2016 Illinois State Senate 20th district Democratic Primary[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 37,221 100
Total votes 37,221 100
2016 Illinois State Senate 20th district election[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 60,418 100
Total votes 60,418 100
2018
2016 Illinois State Senate 20th district Democratic Primary[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 19,414 73.36
Democratic Bart Goldberg 7,050 26.64
Total votes 26,464 100
2018 Illinois State Senate 20th district election[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 55,151 100
Total votes 55,151 100

Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court

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2020
2020 Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Democratic primary[25]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez 269,578 33.67
Democratic Michael M. Cabonargi 216,180 27.00
Democratic Richard R. Boykin 199,526 24.92
Democratic Jacob Meister 113,855 14.22
Write-in Others 1,511 0.19
Total votes 800,650 100
2020 Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County election[26]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez 1,549,615 73.03
Republican Barbara Bellar 572,169 26.97
Total votes 2,121,784 100
2024
2024 Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Democratic primary[27]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Mariyana Spyropoulos 309,424 65.04
Democratic Iris Y. Martinez (incumbent) 166,293 34.96
Total votes 475,717 100

References

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  1. ^ a b Struett, David (3 November 2020). "Iris Martinez elected as first Latina Cook County Circuit Court clerk". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Bill Status of HB0211". Illinois General Assembly. Retrieved 2023-01-12.
  3. ^ "The More Things Change". Chicago Reader. 2006-03-17.
  4. ^ Miller, Rich (November 26, 2018). "Pritzker transition unveils Powering Illinois' Future Committee". Capitol Fax. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  5. ^ Kapos, Shia (December 22, 2020). "Business of Politics". Politico Illinois Playbook. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  6. ^ Myers, Andrew (28 April 2020). "Iris Martinez upsets Evanston favorite Michael Cabonargi". The Daily Northwestern. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  7. ^ Duarte, Lourdes; Schroedter, Andrew (2020-12-18). "Dorothy Brown to new clerk: 'Stop whining and start managing'". WGN-TV. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  8. ^ Quig, A.D. (November 21, 2022). "Cook County court clerk is latest to exit federal oversight of hiring practices, though administrator has lingering concerns". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  9. ^ Mihalopoulos, Dan (March 8, 2022). "How a lawyer at the center of Evanston's lifeguard abuse scandal landed a Cook County job". WBEZ Chicago. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  10. ^ Quig, A.D. (December 26, 2022). "Machine politics still front and center in race for 33rd Ward alderman". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Barrios, Kenneth (June 22, 2022). "Iris Martinez gets cozy with MAGA and January 6th Supporters". 33rd Ward Working Families. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  12. ^ "Iris Martinez for 33rd Ward Dem Committeeman". Reform for Illinois' Sunshine Database. Reform for Illinois. Retrieved 2023-01-12.
  13. ^ Nadig, Brian (June 15, 2022). "Rob Martwick and Erin Jones square off in negative campaign mailers in race for 10th Senate District seat". Nadig Newspapers. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  14. ^ Lye, Chandra (August 10, 2018). "Republican Party welcomes union member into leadership ranks". Chicago City Wire. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  15. ^ The People's Fabric [@peoplesfabric] (June 6, 2022). "Jones is big into right-wing conspiracy theories. Restaurants weren't closed because of covid-spread, it was to keep you from gettin' idears! She pushed Trump election fraud conspiracies. She believes BLM & Antifa invaded the Capitol" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. ^ a b Cherone, Heather (July 14, 2022). "Progressive Groups Notched Victories in June Primaries. Now Their Focus Shifts to Chicago's 2023 Elections". WTTW. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  17. ^ Main, Frank (January 7, 2022). "COVID relief fraud probe includes over 50 employees in Cook County Clerk of Court Iris Martinez's office". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  18. ^ Main, Frank (14 April 2023). "Dozens of Cook County employees resign or are fired in clerk of court, county inspector general's PPP fraud probe". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  19. ^ Heffernan, Shannon (17 May 2023). "Cook County has been giving felony records to people who should not have them". Injustice Watch. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  20. ^ Nitkin, Alex (23 February 2024). "Court Clerk's Error Exposed Data Involving Thousands of Juvenile Defendants, Violating State Law". Illinois Answers Project. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  21. ^ @ClerkIYMartinez (February 23, 2024). "Stop with the lies and misinformation" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Cherone, Heather (19 March 2023). "Spyropoulos Defeats Martinez in Race for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk". WTTW. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
  23. ^ Cherone, Heather (19 March 2023). "Spyropoulos Defeats Martinez in Race for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk". WTTW. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Election Results Information". www.elections.il.gov. Illinois State Board of Elections. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  25. ^ "Cook County and The City of Chicago Primary Election March 17, 2020 Combined Summary" (PDF). Cook County Clerk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  26. ^ "Cook County and The City of Chicago General Election November 3, 2020 Combined Summary" (PDF). Cook County Clerk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  27. ^ "All Illinois Primary Election Results". Cook County Clerk. 5 November 2022. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
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