Cook County clerk: Orr

With his office's new online disclosure of lobbyists' attempts to sway county officials, 20-year Cook County Clerk David Orr adds another line to his resume as a reformer.

An effective and accessible public official, Orr opened up county government with a series of new online gold mines, including county board actions and documents, data about each taxing body in the county, and revenue reports for tax-increment financing districts.

For Cook County clerk, we endorse Democrat Orr over his Republican challenger, attorney Angel Garcia.

Orr favors combining some jobs duplicated by Chicago and Cook County and just took over handling birth and death records from the Chicago Department of Health, which he says will bring in a million dollars or more in revenue a year.

On his to-do list?

Merging Chicago and Cook County election duties to save more money, an idea that's long overdue.