State Senator Kirk Dillard, April 22, 2004:
“My polling shows that only 12 to 14 percent of DuPage County identify themselves as Democrats. If I do my job, it could be conceivably nine to one Republican in this county.
…
And, again, [DuPage] county still falls two and a half, to three to one Republican.”
In June the GOP was sending out letters asking why voters were “switching” due to a 13% surge in DuPage Democratic voters compare to two years ago.
In November Democrats made significant inroads in DuPage, not only for John Kerry and especially Barack Obama, but also in local races. On November 14, 2004, the Daily Herald published an analysis “Democrats weaken GOP stronghold in the suburbs.”
Kirk, I don’t question that the Democrats in DuPage need further development, but I also don’t question that we’re going to get there through smart grassroots work that engages DuPage residents, instead of taking them for granted. It wasn’t until the very end of the election cycle (and after) that we started hearing about increasing taxes through a DuPage County sales tax - perhaps to the tune of $35 million. Also, how are Republicans going to replace the hole in the budget when they can no longer use DuPage Water Commission money (after 2007) that they’ve diverted for general budget use to the tune of $15 million a year? Do you think our water rates will go up too, now that the money is gone - as some Republican mayors have publicly worried - or is that a tax you care about? The party of “Less Tax” you advertise on your county website doesn’t hold water.
Kirk, DuPage Democrats are gaining. There weren’t any county races this year anywhere near “two and a half to one Republican” - although I believe that Obama ran close to that “two and a half to one Democrat” - your “nine to one Republican” is just foolishness - unless Alan Keyes becomes a Democrat, in which case all bets are off. My understanding is that Keyes is staying in Illinois as a Republican - so I don’t think DuPage Democrats have anything to fear, on that count.
In the end, however, it isn’t about the parties or the numbers. It’s about good government, which requires ending one-party rule, because it permits candidates who are “sleepy” or simply “not connected with voters” to win - and that isn’t good for DuPage residents, or their government. Democrats are working to help put the “D” into DuPage - “D” for “diversity” that makes a difference. It’s time to add a new perspective to issues like fiscal accountability - so we can actually be fiscally accountable in DuPage. It’s time to make government more responsive to the voters of DuPage, because that’s the way to make it better.
Comments 2
If you’d like a county board that represents both parties (and by extension, almost all the people instead of only half), then you should consider advocating for cumulative voting rights in your two-seat districts, as HB 138 now permits. Check out http://www.midwestdemocracy.org for details. DJW
Posted 08 Dec 2004 at 11:09 pm ¶Hi Dan Johnson-Weinberger,
As sympathetic as I am to the policy and argument, I think cumulative voting rights suffer tremendously from being too difficult to explain easily. That’s not a reason to be against it (and I’m not) - but it does mean that informing the public about the proposal is incredibly difficult and time consuming. The question, ultimately, is do you have that kind of time with people who do not enjoy politics as much as we do? and if you do have that kind of time with them, do you want to spend it all on this issue?
It’s not easy to get that kind of time with voters (or to have enough of it to spend with individual voters), and as important as cumulative voting is, I’m not sure it’s the only issue I want to advocate. I’m not even sure, given its complexity, that if I were to advocate it to the exclusion of all other issues, that I could reach enough voters to make it a winning issue in DuPage right now.
It may be a different story once the Democrats are more organized in DuPage, and we can explain issues like cumulative voting to organizers in depth, and then have them spread the information to other Democrats plus independent and Republican voters, but we’re not at that point yet.
Posted 09 Dec 2004 at 11:29 pm ¶Post a Comment