A preferred former state treasurer versus a trail-blazing, rising star of the Illinois Democratic Occasion, in addition to an esteemed South Facet alderman and a south suburban non-profit director?

Or is it a clumsy former banker versus a Metropolis Corridor insider who allegedly boosted her husband’s lobbying enterprise, in addition to a determined politician making baseless accusations and a political puppet planted within the race to confuse voters?

All of it depends upon which candidate you ask within the heated four-way Democratic major race for secretary of state, the occasion’s solely statewide contest with out an incumbent vying for the nomination — forcing Illinois’ strongest Dems to select sides.

The looming void left by retiring Secretary of State Jesse White — lengthy thought of Illinois’ hottest elected official after an unprecedented six phrases — has drawn an bold subject of hopefuls seeking to keep Democratic management of the state’s most public-facing workplace, chargeable for driver providers and most different record-keeping.

Whereas former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago Metropolis Clerk Anna Valencia, Ald. David Moore (seventeenth) and Homewood resident Sidney Moore all agree that modernizing expertise within the workplace can be their prime precedence, they diverge on their characterizations of each other.

Giannoulias and Valencia have emerged because the perceived frontrunners within the race, because of big-name occasion institution endorsements and hefty marketing campaign contributions.

These {dollars} — greater than $4.4 million within the financial institution for Giannoulias and $1.1 million for Valencia on the finish of March, with a whole lot of 1000’s extra flowing in for every since then — have helped them each flood the airwaves with advertisements.

Giannoulias, who held the state treasurer’s workplace from 2007-11, has confronted the identical questions that dogged his shedding 2010 bid for Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, all surrounding his tenure as mortgage officer for his household’s doomed Broadway Financial institution.

The establishment accepted loans to some with alleged hyperlinks to organized crime earlier than it went underneath in the midst of Giannoulias’ Senate marketing campaign.

​​“Nobody has ever accused me of doing something unethical or remotely untoward,” Giannoulias advised the Solar-Occasions. “Like plenty of companies within the Nice Recession, sadly, my household’s workplace didn’t survive.”

However Valencia mentioned Giannoulias and his household “left immigrant households hanging,” arguing that the failure “raises main pink flags” about his skill to supervise one of many state’s largest workplaces.

Valencia, who was appointed metropolis clerk by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2016 and received a full time period in 2019, has come underneath fireplace herself for a whole lot of emails despatched from her metropolis account, both to or concerning her lobbyist husband and his purchasers.

NBC-5 Chicago reported that Valencia didn’t report her husband’s lobbying work on her metropolis ethics disclosures — the kind of financial curiosity statements that will fall underneath her purview as secretary of state. She has known as it “an trustworthy mistake.”

“I actually am not the primary girl who has needed to say that my husband doesn’t converse for me,” mentioned Valencia, who can be the primary girl and the primary Latinx individual to function Illinois secretary of state.

“I want I had been extra cautious with the blending of my private {and professional} emails, however the expertise has made me a stronger individual and a greater public servant.”

Giannoulias hammered Valencia over the controversy, arguing that as a result of the secretary of state oversees lobbyist registrations, “there can’t even be a scent of something improper.”

Ald. David Moore, working an brisk marketing campaign with about $100,000 readily available, has tried to capitalize on the opposite candidates’ mud-slinging, presenting himself as the one candidate with none moral baggage to lug into the final election.

“Voters need somebody with good character and integrity, somebody who’s there to serve them, who’s a sound fiscal supervisor and who isn’t in search of a political stepping stone,” mentioned Ald. David Moore, an accountant who has represented his South Facet ward since 2015. “They don’t see that from the opposite candidates. They’ve bought a robust public servant in me.”

Sidney Moore, in the meantime, has stored a decrease marketing campaign profile, with no donations or bills reported to the Illinois State Board of Elections. He mentioned he was impressed to run after his driver’s license was suspended because of a sequence of parking tickets.

“Jesse White allowed it to occur,” mentioned the manager director of the non-profit Huge Field Charities Inc. “The residents of Illinois are bored with anticipating totally different outcomes from the identical politicians. They’ll see there’s a candidate right here who’s not only a politician.”

However the alderperson with the identical final identify has steered political shenanigans have been afoot with Sidney Moore’s entry into the race. Ald. David Moore mentioned “somebody put him within the race to trigger confusion for voters,” although he acknowledged he doesn’t have proof to again up the declare. “Everyone knows Chicago politics,” the Metropolis Council member mentioned.

Sidney Moore mentioned the alderperson was “greedy at straws. We run in a few of the similar circles. He most likely heard I used to be working. I feel he tried to leap in forward of me.”

Giannoulias and Valencia mentioned they scarcely know of the Homewood candidate and had nothing to do together with his political aspirations.

For his half, Sidney Moore says he’d prioritize upgrading expertise in driver providers services to enhance wait instances. He additionally mentioned he needs to introduce self-service stations much like kiosks which have sprung up in Michigan.

Ald. David Moore, who’s backed by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and quite a few Chicago clergy leaders, mentioned he needs to increase on-line providers to incorporate automobile titling, and use libraries as satellite tv for pc DMV workplaces. He additionally needs to discover digital license plates, which have been approved in different states as a method of streamlining registrations.

Valencia — who has the coveted endorsement of Jesse White amongst a bevy of different elected officers together with billionaire Gov. J.B. Pritzker and U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin — mentioned she’d increase cellular providers and versatile hours like she has in Metropolis Corridor, establishing store in park district services and providing providers on evenings and weekends.

Giannoulias — backed by dozens of highly effective labor teams in addition to U.S. Reps. Jesús “Chuy” García, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Bobby Rush, Mike Quigley and extra —mentioned he needs to digitize drivers licenses and state IDs, and introduce a cellular app to assist minimize down on traces.

The winner of the June 28 major will advance to the final election towards the Republican nominee, both state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, or former central Illinois federal prosecutor John Milhiser.

One other Jesse White can be on the poll in November, too — a Libertarian candidate from downstate Centralia, no relation to the retiring secretary of state.

Early voting is already underway.