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[Editor Note: I have added to Gayl’s endorsements below.]

Tomorrow night Democratic precinct captains in DuPage will vote for three Democratic Party of DuPage County officers: Chair, First Vice Chair and Treasurer.

DuPage Democratic Chair

Incumbent, and former York Township Democratic Organization Chair, Gayl Ferraro is running again for party chair. Just-stepped-down York Township Democratic Chair Doug Cole has been seeking support from township officers throughout DuPage for a challenge. There is no doubt that the DuPage Democrats have been experiencing growth and are receiving more notice from state and national party leaders. There is also no doubt that we still have a long way to go. While I don’t know a lot about the particulars, Cole’s one major attempt at county party fundraising a couple years ago, involving all of the townships and a volunteer call center, bore no fruit (there’s no other fair way to describe it). Cole’s more recent advocacy of Christine Cegelis’ campaign, admirable in itself, unfortunately showed he lacks public communication discipline, leading him to needlessly disparage Democratic Party officials and a 6th congressional Democratic campaign that ill-served the Cegelis campaign, the DuPage Democrats and Doug Cole himself. Strong advocacy is one thing, public name-calling quite another. We, unfortunately, read about Doug’s views in the newspapers and magazines. Doug Cole has now sent around a platform touting, among other things, fundraising and his plan to “raise the profile and ‘player’ status” of the DuPage Democrats with the congressional campaigns and the state party. Given his record, it just isn’t credible.

Gayl Ferraro is not without faults, but she has been a steady hand at the county Democratic rudder. She also was an early supporter of Howard Dean’s presidency, and respects the grassroots. While a good sense of political judgment is likely a requirement of any county party chair, Gayl’s more developed sense of political judgment is very necessary for navigating the personalities and politics of the DuPage Democrats, where a lot is expected on (too often) very limited political resources. Gayl has earned the public support of Downers Grove Township Democratic Organization Chair Christine Hotchkin, outgoing Milton Township Chair Mark Demich (see below) and District 82 State Representative Candidate Kim Savage among others. Gayl is the much stronger candidate for the job, and she deserves to be re-elected.

First Vice Chair

Just-about to-step-down Milton Township Democratic Organization Chair Mark Demich is running to replace outgoing First Vice Chair James Reynolds of York Township, who was recently a backer of Peter O’Malley in the 6th Congressional race. My understanding is that Jim got involved with the DuPage Democrats after supporting Brent Christensen in the 6th Congressional race in 2000, a breakthrough race for Democrats, since it was the first time a Democratic candidate broke 40% against Henry Hyde since his first election in 1974 (Brent got 41%).

Mark Demich’s platform consists of supporting the Chair and focusing on two areas:

1. Improving organization by helping the county and township Democrats get more precinct captains and volunteers, connecting them more directly to candidates and campaigns, and improving their fundraising; and

2. Improving media visibility and outreach.

From everything I know Mark has done a good job fundraising and organizing the Milton Township Democrats. I trust he would do a good job at the county level as well. While he is, as far as I know, uncontested for the position, he deserves the office on his merits.

Treasurer

Bob Jeffers is the current Treasurer and is planning to run again. As far as I know he is uncontested. Bob’s efforts, keeping the books and mailing out membership solicitations, are very necessary - and he seems to handle them well. The fact that he’s easy to get along with and very approachable is also a plus. He deserves another term.