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[A reader has rightly pointed out that I should disclose my past financial relationship with Rob Bisceglie, which consisted of part-time, non-political, non-profit grant writing, which lasted less than a year and ended November 2006. I have not discussed any financial relationship with Rob since about February 2007. I have also used Bob Peickert’s printing services both as an individual and in my capacity as a member of the Naperville Democrats (I’d guess the last time may have been over a year ago - but I defer to Bob the last time about ten months ago). I have not had and currently do not have a financial relationship with either Michelle Barton or Chris Hotchkin. I have had financial relationships with all of the candidates if you count Naperville Democratic fundraisers.]

Until recently the DuPage Democrats could have adopted It’s My Party as their theme song. In election after election DuPage Democrats watched their candidates abandoned at the voting booth for entrenched Republicans. Now that’s changed. Unprecedented primary turnout made DuPage Democrats the highest vote-getting party in DuPage County this year by tens of thousands of votes. Local DuPage Democratic candidates are within striking distance of winning general elections too - and statewide Democratic candidates already win in DuPage. Today two Democratic State Senators and a Democratic State Representative represent portions of DuPage. Growth and prospects of success have inspired local Democratic activists, some of whom have set their sights on reforming the county party, where candidates Rob Bisceglie, Bob Peickert and their supporters have engaged in a heated race for Democratic Chair. As is the case in similar circumstances, there’s plenty “reforming” to be done and plenty of suggestions about where to start.

In the rush of discussing how to do things (and how things shouldn’t be done), there has not been enough discussion of why the county party exists - and what function(s) it serves. In other words, the discussion has focused on countywide challenges and problems local Democrats face, instead of the county-level challenges and problems we face. While countywide challenges are of obvious concern to everyone, county-level challenges are what the race for DuPage County Democratic Party Chair should focus on. It’s better to understand the broad outlines of the right debate than to get mired in the particulars of the wrong one.

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For example, Bob Peickert and Operation: Turn DuPage Blue have (rightly I think) made much of their ability to recruit Precinct Committeemen and hold training session for them. This is a great thing for an independent organization to do, helping local Democrats, and it addresses the lack of Democratic precinct committee people countywide - a longstanding problem. However, while offering ‘best training practices’ to committee people at the county-level makes sense to me, I’m less convinced that a focus on recruiting precinct committee people at the county-level makes sense. Why? Precinct recruitment ideally should be a township-level function. Townships are the organizations that have monthly township meetings, are located in the proximity of their precinct committeemen and presumably are the organizations that are most in tune with who and where the local people are and what the local ’scene’ is for their township. Why should the County Democratic organization, in a county of 1 million people that can take hours to drive from end-to-end, be responsible for recruiting people in Bensenville and Aurora, and Bartlett and Hinsdale? Traveling all over is a waste of time. Presumably to do it right, with local knowledge, the county would have to have groups devoted to each township to mobilize - which is the reason, after all, that township-level Democratic organizations exist. We may need to fix things at the township-level, and the county may help, but we don’t need to duplicate them. I spoke to Bob Peickert briefly about this yesterday, and he in general terms, and without me prompting, agreed that the County Democratic organization should not normally be focused on precinct recruitment except in cases where townships are unable or unwilling to do better. I would go further, despite both OTDB and the current county Democrat’s focus recruiting precinct committeemen, I worry that [DuPage County Democratic organization] efforts here detract from other efforts the county should emphasize that townships are not as well designed to do. Hosting some trainings and distributing best practices is fine - but at some point you have to depend on township Democrats to do their job so that you can do your own.

So what types of county-level things should the DuPage Democratic Party do, or do better? I think that is what the Chair candidate contest is about - their vision of the county party and how they will realize it. I don’t profess to have all the answers, but here are a few suggestions. First, the County Democratic Party needs to have what in business is called a “USP” or “Unique Selling Proposition” - a reason, in other words, to exist. Not all functions need to be “unique” - for example, the county and the townships should both raise money so that they can support candidates, maintain operations, etc. But if not everything needs to be unique, the county party should not just be a very big township party - we already have a lot of townships in DuPage. Here are a few thoughts about what the county party might do (or do better) - in no particular order:

- County-level (and above) candidate recruitment and support
When more than one township (or county) is involved in an election - that should be a place the DuPage County Democratic organization plays a bigger role through recruitment and support. It hasn’t been a strong suit for either Rob Bisceglie or Bob Peickert - although this year my understanding is that we have more candidate slots filled overall than we have had before (I haven’t double-checked this).

- County-level liaisons for key coalition members
Rob Bisceglie has a union liaison (former Wayne Township Chair Laura Fletcher) and the county party has begun a Young Democrats branch, but with those exceptions, I don’t know that the county party has done a lot of work in the past making sure we have formal, strong connections to the groups that make up DuPage County. Do we have representatives focused on women’s issues, Asian-American issues, small business issues, and many others? We should. Bob Peickert to his credit recognizes this need as well. It’s an area the county needs to improve on.

- Data central
The Republican Party has Voter Vault - where is ours? We may not have the immediate resources for parity - but we should expect better and more consistent data support. Both candidates have articulated this idea and I know Rob Bisceglie has started work on it.

- Communication central
Beyond press releases (which we cover well), legislative trackers (which we need) and an official spokesperson, townships and candidates could benefit from professional graphics too. Some of these positions probably ought to be paid to ensure results. Online communication has improved with the addition of part-time Political Director Rob Freedman (who had to resign to pursue his teaching career) and now Jon Myers to staff. Freedman’s attempts to use online social communication tools like Facebook, while only starting, were a positive sign, as are Jon Myers and Rob Bisceglie’s modernization and improvement of the county website (still a work in progress).

There are no doubt a lot of other things that should be done at the county-level - and, to be fair, there are too many things to be done at once. Someone thirsty from years in the desert may dream of operating an Ice Mountain water distributorship - but they probably ought to start with a glass of water when they can get it. Both candidates for County Chair are quality candidates - and neither one will likely give us a clear idea of how good they can/will be for at least a year or two.

I have friends on both sides of this race - and it’s really been a very tough decision for me. In the end I’m motivated by a handful of considerations. First, I think Operation: Turn DuPage Blue (OTDB) has done a tremendous job, particularly recruiting precinct committeemen and providing Democratic volunteers. I’d like them to continue to do this. Mature parties have multiple layers of specialty organizations that mutually reinforce each other (and keep each other ‘on track’). Bob Peickert, despite offering himself as a full-time volunteer, plans to fold OTDB into the county party should he win the county chair position - if for no other reason than there isn’t enough time for him to head both groups. That strikes me as a gain and a loss.

Second, as I’ve indicated above, I think if you want to look at somebody’s record as Chair you’ll likely need to see them in action for a year or two - Rob Bisceglie has had about six months. He’s done a lot in that time with fundraising events (three - one inherited) - some of the proceeds of which have filtered to local Democratic candidates in an unprecedented amounts, work on revamping the website, holding candidate press events, etc. Has Bisceglie’s leadership been without criticism? No, I too think that fundraising expenses have been too high and need to come down to take one example. But I believe people deserve a chance to show what they can do - and while I haven’t seen the expenses for the recent Senator Dick Durbin fundraising event, I imagine they’re more in line than either the President’s Day Gala (traditionally too expensive) and the first time golf outing (also a big expense and a learning experience). Improvement is a consideration.

Finally, I’m motivated by a parochial concern that Naperville, despite being the biggest city (and one of the most Democratic areas of DuPage) hasn’t had Democratic county executive representative for what I understand to be at least over a decade. That’s too long. Michelle Barton of Naperville Township is running with Bob Peickert as his Vice Chair - and she is the only candidate from Naperville or Lisle Township (Rob Bisceglie’s slate features Chris Hotchkin of Downers Grove, with 30+ years of DuPage Democratic experience, for Vice Chair).

As I’ve said, all the candidates bring something positive to this race - and I expect the DuPage Democratic Party to improve with them. In the end I plan to vote for Rob Bisceglie to give him a chance to show the county what he can do for us and Michelle Barton to provide her energy, local (for the Naperville area) representation and her connections to Operation: Turn DuPage Blue, which has certainly earned a seat at the county party. Bob Jeffers is the consensus candidate for Treasurer - and he deserves my vote (and thanks for service) as well. I hope both Bob Peickert and Chris Hotchkin will continue their work for DuPage and the Democrats. We need both. We need OTDB and we need people who have devoted so much of their lives to DuPage. We’re on an upward Democratic trend in DuPage - and both Bob and Chris, along with Rob and Michelle, deserve credit for the work that has led to it.