Don Gray’s four-year-old no longer refers to
him as daddy. “I’m now ‘Don Gray for
Recorder,'”Gray says. He estimates he’s knocked on about
12,000 doors throughout the county and dropped about a dozen pounds and
ruined a couple pairs of shoes in the process.
But any advertising Gray can get — even word of
mouth by his son — will probably come in handy in his quest to fill
the vacancy left by Mary Ann Lamm, a Democrat who held the office for 32
years. Gray is facing Josh Langfelder — a former chief deputy of
Lamm’s and, well, has Langfelder as his surname. Josh’s father,
Ossie, was mayor of Springfield and his brother, Jim, is the current city
treasurer.
“I’ll be bold in how I say it,”
says Gray, 35, a manager and owner of rental properties. “I
don’t think that Josh would be the Democratic nominee for recorder if
it were not for the familiar last name and the cultivation of the political
careers of his father and his brother. Nor do I believe he would have ever
been the chief-deputy recorder without the help and assistance of his
father.”
Langfelder, a lifelong Springfieldian who attended
Ursuline Academy and Lincoln Land Community College, rejects Gray’s
assertions. “My experience in banking dovetails with experience
working in recorder’s office,” he says. “Yes, my name is
a name in Springfield that’s fairly popular because of my dad. I just
think that with my experience, that’s why I was sought,” he
says.
That’s about as heated as this race is going to
get. The contest is between a loan originator and a property manager over
who will head up the office responsible for maintaining the official legal
record of real estate ownership and other documents.
In addition to having served as a Lamm lieutenant,
Langfelder says that in his job at Security Bank he interacts with the same
people who frequently use the recorder’s office — title
companies, lawyers, construction firms, and appraisers –- and
counsels customers through the recording process. In short, he already
knows the office inside-out, he says.
Although he describes Lamm’s office as the most
efficient in county government, he would like to make some 21st century
upgrades, such as implementing fraud-protection software that automatically
conceals Social Security numbers and other sensitive information when
documents are searched.
Gray, a Palos Heights native who coordinated special
events for state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka and worked on her
gubernatorial campaign, would like to raise the profile of the
recorder’s office by speaking to groups of homeowners, senior
citizens, and veterans, who record their military discharges with the
office. He also plans to place every recorded document available online so
that “people can do the research they need from the comfort of their
home or office.”
“That’s already done,” for a fee,
through a Web portal called Tapestry, Langfelder says. He says that
Gray’s plan to implement a program that already exists demonstrates
his limited knowledge of the recorder’s office. “It helps being
there. The know-how and the experience is just an advantage for
me.”
Gray believes he’s worked harder, noting that
he was not initially embraced the local Republican party. He drew the ire
of local GOP chairman Tony Libri last year by participating in
Springfield’s St. Patrick’s Day parade on behalf
then-aldermanic candidate Barry McAnarney — a Democrat and a friend
of Gray and his wife. At the time, he wasn’t considering running for
office nor did he live in Ward 10 where McAnarney was embroiled in a close
contest against Tim Griffin, who eventually won the seat. It was the first
time Gray wasn’t walking for Topinka.
“So I decided to support a friend,” Gray
says. When no Republicans opposed Langfelder in the spring primary, Gray
filed to be a write-in candidate. “Something wasn’t sitting
right with me that we were not going to provide a choice,” he says.
“Our democracy works best when we’re provided
choices.”
Both Langfelder and Gray have joined the National
Association of County Recorders in the meantime, although both men claim it
is not out of presumptuousness but to remain abreast of current issues.
And each candidate also agrees that the
recorder’s office is among the least controversial in the county.
“You’re not going to be a Democrat
recorder and you’re not going to be a Republican recorder.
You’re going to be the Sangamon County recorder and you’re
there to serve every single individual,” Langfelder says. “You
can’t bring a political philosophy to the recorder’s office and
I think that’s good.”
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.
