Who can fix county Dems? BY CAROL MARIN
Who can fix county Dems? BY CAROL MARIN
Copyright by The chicago Sun-Times
January 31, 2007
Hey, did you hear about the election Thursday? The one to pick the new chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party? Probably not.
And if you had heard and went searching for some information about it on the Cook County Democratic Party's sad little Web site, you were out of luck. "There are no events posted at this time," it read Tuesday afternoon. "Please check later!" Even the Cook County Dems know the election of a new chairman doesn't qualify as "an event," not even to them.
Once upon a time, the Cook County Democratic Party was a powerhouse. It had structure, discipline and money. But that was back in the days when Richard J. Daley, Ed Vrdolyak and George Dunne took turns at the helm. Believe me, I'm not going all gooey-eyed about how great it was back when those guys ran things with an iron fist. But it was, for better or worse, a genuine organization that accomplished its stated goals. It endorsed people for office and then actually got them elected.
From then until now, there has been a steady erosion of relevance of the Cook County Dems. The current mayor, Richard M. Daley, rebelled against the regulars in 1980, when then-Mayor Jane Byrne and the party endorsed 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke for state's attorney in the primary. Daley, the non-slated candidate, won with 63 percent of the vote.
From that day forward, Daley relied on his own get-out-the-vote groups to keep getting elected and installed a weak leader, Tom Lyons, to "run" the regulars into the ground.
Three politicians are lining up, pledging to resuscitate county Dems: 29th Ward Ald. Isaac Carothers; Board of Review Commissioner Joseph Berrios, and state Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie.
They will make their pitch to an assembly of 50 Chicago ward committeemen and 30 suburban committeemen over at the Allegro Hotel at 11 a.m. Thursday. (Just in case their Web site never gets around to posting it, I thought you should know.)
Lang thinks it's high time for the chairman of the party to come from the suburbs. That, however, overlooks the fact that the last chairman, Lyons, a 45th Ward committeeman, despite an official city address, really lived in the suburbs for decades though he denied it.
Lyons, who died this month, had a law practice that flourished because of his Democratic connections, but the party itself certainly did not. The year 2000 was the last time Lyons even tried to flex some muscle. That year he gave his personal backing to his 45th Ward protege, Ald. Pat Levar, who was running for clerk of the Circuit Court. Democratic committeemen, following Lyons' lead, dutifully slated Levar.
And you know what happened?
An unslated candidate by the name of Dorothy Brown ate him for lunch. She has been the clerk of the Circuit Court ever since, the same Dorothy Brown who is now running for mayor.
And in the years since, it has only gotten worse. I remember sitting in the November 2005 slate-making session. Committeemen filed in, pretending to listen to candidates seeking their support. Some candidates were running for judge. Some for sheriff. Even Forrest Claypool, candidate for president of the Cook County Board, showed up, though he knew he didn't have snowball's chance of being anointed.
Everybody knew the deals had already been made. "Slating is decided when you walk in the door," Carothers told me Tuesday. But woe to some of those slated that day. Two candidates for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District who got the party's blessing, James Harris and Barrett Pedersen, got the voters' boot. Debra Shore and Patricia Horton, two who were not slated, today are in office instead. And when it came to judges, Joy Cunningham, candidate for the appellate court, beat the ward bosses' choice, David Anthony Erickson.
So can Berrios, Carothers or Lang turn this battleship of a party around? Do they, all longtime party regulars, have the vision and leadership?
"Not that I have seen," said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, "but I can always be surprised."
We could use that kind of political surprise.
The leadership of the Cook County Democratic Party is mostly men, mostly white and mostly old school.
It's time for a change.
Now that the alternative get-out-the-vote organizations that Daley created to circumvent the ward bosses, most notably the Hispanic Democratic Organization, are under U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's microscope, there is a void that this party can really fill.
And now that Illinois has a favorite son presidential candidate, Barack Obama, who is going to be headquartered in Chicago, there's even more reason to breathe some life, some youth and some real diversity into the leadership of this sickly organization.
I know it's a real long shot. But here's hoping.
Copyright by The chicago Sun-Times
January 31, 2007
Hey, did you hear about the election Thursday? The one to pick the new chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party? Probably not.
And if you had heard and went searching for some information about it on the Cook County Democratic Party's sad little Web site, you were out of luck. "There are no events posted at this time," it read Tuesday afternoon. "Please check later!" Even the Cook County Dems know the election of a new chairman doesn't qualify as "an event," not even to them.
Once upon a time, the Cook County Democratic Party was a powerhouse. It had structure, discipline and money. But that was back in the days when Richard J. Daley, Ed Vrdolyak and George Dunne took turns at the helm. Believe me, I'm not going all gooey-eyed about how great it was back when those guys ran things with an iron fist. But it was, for better or worse, a genuine organization that accomplished its stated goals. It endorsed people for office and then actually got them elected.
From then until now, there has been a steady erosion of relevance of the Cook County Dems. The current mayor, Richard M. Daley, rebelled against the regulars in 1980, when then-Mayor Jane Byrne and the party endorsed 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke for state's attorney in the primary. Daley, the non-slated candidate, won with 63 percent of the vote.
From that day forward, Daley relied on his own get-out-the-vote groups to keep getting elected and installed a weak leader, Tom Lyons, to "run" the regulars into the ground.
Three politicians are lining up, pledging to resuscitate county Dems: 29th Ward Ald. Isaac Carothers; Board of Review Commissioner Joseph Berrios, and state Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie.
They will make their pitch to an assembly of 50 Chicago ward committeemen and 30 suburban committeemen over at the Allegro Hotel at 11 a.m. Thursday. (Just in case their Web site never gets around to posting it, I thought you should know.)
Lang thinks it's high time for the chairman of the party to come from the suburbs. That, however, overlooks the fact that the last chairman, Lyons, a 45th Ward committeeman, despite an official city address, really lived in the suburbs for decades though he denied it.
Lyons, who died this month, had a law practice that flourished because of his Democratic connections, but the party itself certainly did not. The year 2000 was the last time Lyons even tried to flex some muscle. That year he gave his personal backing to his 45th Ward protege, Ald. Pat Levar, who was running for clerk of the Circuit Court. Democratic committeemen, following Lyons' lead, dutifully slated Levar.
And you know what happened?
An unslated candidate by the name of Dorothy Brown ate him for lunch. She has been the clerk of the Circuit Court ever since, the same Dorothy Brown who is now running for mayor.
And in the years since, it has only gotten worse. I remember sitting in the November 2005 slate-making session. Committeemen filed in, pretending to listen to candidates seeking their support. Some candidates were running for judge. Some for sheriff. Even Forrest Claypool, candidate for president of the Cook County Board, showed up, though he knew he didn't have snowball's chance of being anointed.
Everybody knew the deals had already been made. "Slating is decided when you walk in the door," Carothers told me Tuesday. But woe to some of those slated that day. Two candidates for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District who got the party's blessing, James Harris and Barrett Pedersen, got the voters' boot. Debra Shore and Patricia Horton, two who were not slated, today are in office instead. And when it came to judges, Joy Cunningham, candidate for the appellate court, beat the ward bosses' choice, David Anthony Erickson.
So can Berrios, Carothers or Lang turn this battleship of a party around? Do they, all longtime party regulars, have the vision and leadership?
"Not that I have seen," said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, "but I can always be surprised."
We could use that kind of political surprise.
The leadership of the Cook County Democratic Party is mostly men, mostly white and mostly old school.
It's time for a change.
Now that the alternative get-out-the-vote organizations that Daley created to circumvent the ward bosses, most notably the Hispanic Democratic Organization, are under U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's microscope, there is a void that this party can really fill.
And now that Illinois has a favorite son presidential candidate, Barack Obama, who is going to be headquartered in Chicago, there's even more reason to breathe some life, some youth and some real diversity into the leadership of this sickly organization.
I know it's a real long shot. But here's hoping.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 7:58 AM
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