Cook County Democratic Party Reforms Are A Success

For the past two days, Sept. 6 & 7, the Cook County Democratic Party met to endorse candidates for the 2008 Democratic primary elections.  It was truly a breath of fresh air.  New Chairman Joseph Berrios promised that as our new Chairman he would open up the process.  I was skeptical to be honest, but Chairman Berrios delivered on his promise.  I am proud of him and his leadership.  For the first time in all of the time I have been a committeeman all 80 committeemen were part of the process of selecting the candidates that will represent the party.

Much of the work of the Central Committee is done is sub-committees.  In the past the sub-committees were hand picked and as a result a small number of people had tremendous influence over who would be nominated.  This time each committeeman was allowed to be on any sub-committee they chose and for the first time I was able to sit on the committee that made the recommendations to the full body.  I don’t think you will find a committeeman who wouldn’t agree that things have changed significantly at the Central Committee of the Cook County Democratic Party.  You may find a few who are not happy with the change, but the vast majority would tell you it is better.

The following is a list of the  Cook County Democratic Party endorsed candidates for the February 5, 2008 election:

                                                                   

Judicial Office (Name of Vacancy)	Endorsed Candidate
Supreme Court (McMorrow)	Anne Burke
Appellate Court (Burke)	Alan J. Grieman
Appellate Court (Campbell)	John O. Steele
Countywide Circuit Court (Glowacki)	Jesse G. Reyes
Countywide Circuit Court (Montelione)	Thaddeus L. Wilson
Countywide Circuit Court (Keehan)	Marilyn F. Johnson
Countywide Circuit Court (Murphy)	Paula Lingo
Countywide Circuit Court (Nowicki)	Michael B. Hyman
Countywide Circuit Court (Thomas)	Joan Powell
Countywide Circuit Court (Healy)	Maureen Ward-Kirby
Countywide Circuit Court (Disko)	Lauretta Higgins Wolfson
Countywide Circuit Court (Lott)	Thomas J. Byrne
Countywide Circuit Court – Alternate 1	Stephen J. Connelly
Countywide Circuit Court – Alternate 2	Diann Marsalek
Countywide Circuit Court – Alternate 3	Sandra G. Ramos
Countywide Circuit Court – Alternate 4	Dennis J. Burke

 

                           

Elected Office	Endorsed Candidate
States Attorney	OPEN PRIMARY
Clerk of the Circuit Court	Dorothy Brown
Recorder of Deeds	Eugene “Gene” Moore
Commissioner – Water Reclamation Dist.	Kathleen Therese Meany
Commissioner – Water Reclamation Dist.	Frank Avila
Commissioner – Water Reclamation Dist.	Dean Maragos

The item that is getting the most news is the fact that the party chose to have an open primary in the race for States Attorney.  In sub-committee the votes were divided between the candidates ranging from 25% to 40% for each candidate.  It may have been possible to try to squeeze the field to the top two candidates and force a situation where someone would have gotten 50% of the vote, but that would have been destructive.  Sometimes the best decision is to not force a decision.  The right decision was made in my opinion.

The one unfortunate thing that happened was the inclusion in the new by-laws of a clause that allows for Committeemen who did not support the endorsed slate can be stripped of the right to serve on a committee.  While there has been dramatic change and definite improvements in the process, this clause means that there is still room for improvement.  Maybe once they try to enforce this they will find that it is not advisable and will revise the by-laws.