So you thought things couldn't get any worse in corrupt old Cook County?

Try the story about how a former politician and lobbyist best known for literally urinating in a pot on the dais of the Alabama Senate obtained a lucrative, effectively no-bid contact with Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown.

I couldn't make this stuff up, folks. And it's probably the best issue you haven't heard much about in the obscure but most entertaining race for the Democratic nomination for court clerk between Ms. Brown and Chicago Ald. Rick Munoz, 22nd.

At issue is something the federal courts managed to implement years ago: electronic filing of court papers.

Everyone — and I mean everyone — in the law business seems to want e-filing, because it promises to reduce costs drastically and make it much easier for lawyers to do their work without having to trot over to the Daley center.

But the Illinois Supreme Court and its administrative office have been slow to act, both out of privacy concerns and the sheer complexity of shoehorning the system into 102 counties divided among 23 circuits.

The court has authorized a few pilot tests, one of them in Cook County. Ms. Brown, in a somewhat breathless press release last year, announced that the court had given approval to expand e-filing to all civil cases in the county.

That, however, was wrong. The court didn't do any such thing, though insiders concede some "miscommunication" may have been made to Ms. Brown.

Anyhow, to administer the pilot program — and, quite probably, the full e-filing system, when the Supreme Court finally gives the OK — Ms. Brown in 2008 recommended the hiring of Mobile, Ala.-based On-Line Information Services Inc.

The decision was reviewed by the county's chief information officer and approved by the county board, but that was mostly perfunctory.

The firm will charge a fee of $4.95 for every document filed, keeping a third of the money itself and passing the rest to the county. With millions of pieces of paper flying around the Daley center, the potential payoff is considerable.

Ms. Brown recommended On-Line Information Services without publicly seeking bidders in a request for proposal. Instead, she issued a request for qualifications. Seven firms responded, but only OLIS was found qualified and got the nod.

I asked Ms. Brown's office why the others were disqualified. I got a letter back redacting that information, with the explanation that the matter "is considered part of the deliberative process." OK.

Brown rival Mr. Munoz has a different suggestion: The decision may have something to do with the fact OLIS and its principals have contributed nearly $30,000 to Ms. Brown's campaign fund in the past decade — including a $5,000 check in 2007, the same year in which responses to that request for qualifications was received.

Pete Dager, Ms. Brown's campaign manager, says there is "no connection."

Firm principals also donated to the campaign for Matteson village Trustee Bridget Dancy. She happens to be Ms. Brown's chief information officer.

Among the owners of OLIS is Steve Windom. He's a lobbyist who "understands the political process," according to his website. He's also the former lieutenant governor of Alabama, the first Republican elected to that spot since Reconstruction.

Mr. Windom, who did not return calls seeking comment, is remembered for a particular, um, activity in Alabama.

One day in 1999, while presiding over the Senate, and feeling that Democrats would moved to strip him of his power if he slipped out for a quick potty break, Mr. Windom "secretly urinated under the office's dais to keep control of the debate," the Huntsville Times wrote.

It didn't work. (No nasty jokes about how size counts, please.) The Democrats got their way, and someone shot a really nifty video that has attracted lots of traffic at YouTube.

Mr. Dager says Ms. Brown didn't make the recommendation, but that her staff did. He also asserts that the contract may not end up being a big payday for OLIS since it has to be renewed every two years, is subject to change and has pulled in only a few thousand dollars so far.

But Ms. Brown didn't talk about her staff when she bragged in that press release about extending the pilot test to other filings. And the last time the OLIS contract was up for renewal, in 2010, she wrote a letter to the board stating that dumping OLIS would force the county "back to the drawing board" and take "approximately two years."

Mr. Munoz wants the contract rebid and says Mr. Windom failed to register as a lobbyist.

All in all, I'd say it's another one for the books here in Cook County.

Don't forget to vote next Tuesday.