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DPI down-ballot focus continues with county-level races

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Illinois

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

Last year, the Democratic Party of Illinois and Gov. JB Pritzker targeted local school board races to defeat candidates who wanted to ban books and/or were receiving support from right-wing political organizations. The governor ended up claiming victory in more than 70 percent of those campaigns.

The push was unusual because the state’s Democratic Party, like the state Republican Party, had for years been solely focused on processing direct mail for mainly legislative candidates so that those candidates could receive a discount on postage. The total federal discount every year was usually enough to finance mailers for at least one and maybe two additional campaigns.

But when the governor effectively took over the Democratic Party two years ago by electing a new chair, he promised to focus lots more on down-ballot races. Last year’s school board contests, which cost the party about $300,000, were the first visible signs that the party was moving in a new direction.

This year, the state party claims it is pushing 80 countywide and county board candidates in 19 counties where they think they can flip seats to their side. It’s not known how much the party intends to spend on those races, but since June 30, DPI has raised more than $1 million dollars above and beyond the $5.5 million it’s taken in from legislative leaders for direct mail. And about half of that million bucks came from the governor.

The idea is not just to get supporters to the polls but also to encourage voters to cast votes in down-ticket races. “It’s a drop-off prevention program,” a party official, who asked not to be named, told me.

Lots of people will vote for the presidential candidate of their choice and some other hot races, but tend to drop off and not vote in as large numbers for lesser-known candidates for, say, county board, or even countywide offices.

The county candidates the Democratic Party is backing are in Bureau, Champaign, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Macon, Madison, McHenry, McLean, Peoria, Rock Island, St. Clair, Sangamon, Will and Winnebago counties. Several of those counties also have contested legislative and congressional races, and party leaders say they will help coordinate another targeted 35 state legislative and congressional campaigns with any county efforts in those areas.
Shoring up vulnerable Dems

The plan is to shore up specific vulnerable local Democrats who may need protection as well as go hard in “partisanship transitional districts where we think we can flip some seats,” I was told.

The party has hired year-round staffers to help with this effort, “which means we’ve been able to attract some pretty serious and expert campaign folks,” the DPI official claimed. They’re supplying communications services to candidates, including pushing any opposition research to local news media outlets. They’ve also hired eight field organizers, have four regional directors, and have “onboarded four campus fellows” in university towns, who are all recruiting and supervising precinct volunteers.

“We’ve actually been successful at mitigating a good deal of redundancy in each of these regions where you might have a House caucus candidate knocking the same door as a Senate caucus candidate on the same day. Or a targeted county board district calling through a phone list that a state Senate candidate is calling through that same day,” said the party official. “Rather than trying to sprinkle new volunteer shifts across 10 different events and support 10 different candidates, we’re able to group those folks together into coordinated walks and phone banks.”

In addition, the party is organizing car caravans and renting buses to send volunteers to swing states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.

But is that out-of-state effort undermining the county race focus? “No, not really,” I was told. “A lot of the energy we’ve seen directed toward Wisconsin and Michigan has come out of parts of our state where there aren’t targeted races.”

And for those who want to volunteer out of state where they have local targeted races, the party is actively trying to convince them to stay in their neighborhoods.

The Democratic Party has a billionaire governor and cash-rich labor unions to fill its coffers.

The Illinois Republican Party, on the other hand, no longer has a reliable cadre of wealthy party members to help fund campaigns. They’ve mostly retired, moved to year-round golfing areas or, sadly, passed away. So, it’s not surprising that almost all of the money the state GOP has taken in since the end of June will be redirected into the traditional mail program.

Since that column was written on Friday afternoon, the Democratic Party of Illinois has reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional contributions that appear to be tied to these efforts.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 7:39 am

Comments

Yes. Focus on the low level races. A rising tide lifts all boatsand helps support the top of the ticket.

Comment by low level Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 8:18 am
“mostly retired, moved to year-round golfing areas or, sadly, passed away”

Or know a really bad investment when they see one.

Comment by Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 8:27 am
The locals put themselves in the spotlight by opposing COVID orders, promising to become sanctuaries for assault weapons, and threatening a Purge from bail reform.

Enjoy the sunlight, guys,

Comment by Thomas Paine Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 8:46 am
Given all the drama at CPS/CTU I will be curious if DPI also gets involved in the Chicago school board race these next few weeks.

Comment by Just Me 2 Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 8:48 am
Why would anyone touch the Chicago School Board mess right now? Especially with a national election demanding so many volunteer hours and dollars? If it (improbably) becomes politically necessary to play in that CPS Board sandbox? Do it in the 2025 round when there’s time to do it properly (and sadly probably lots more ammo for negative mailers).

Comment by ChicagoBars Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 8:53 am
==Why would anyone touch the Chicago School Board mess right now?==

Three reasons I can think of:

1) to try and prevent bad policies from being enacted (loan proposal, possible end of selective enrolment curriculum)

2) to keep CTU in check

3) to give Mayor Johnson a loss

Comment by low level Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 9:06 am
Downballot is where the meat and potatoes items take place that actually impact people the most. Absolutely should always focus on them.

Otherwise you get a yahoo like the Oklahoma school board chair that’s buying Trump bibles for school in a blatantly obvious money scheme to launder public tax money to a political campaign.

Comment by TJ Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 9:20 am
==Three reasons I can think of:==

You won’t be able to do any of that before the election. Even if you could get the General Assembly back in October (highly unlikely) you’re not going to be able to pass a bill blocking City Hall’s new board before they can do your #1 or #2.

As for #3? At this point you can just stand clear and keep your hands clean and there’s a 50/50 chance City Hall will step on a rake without any help.

There’s no reason for DPI or GA to declare a crisis and get involved yet.

Comment by ChicagoBars Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 9:21 am
==There’s no reason for DPI or GA to declare a crisis and get involved yet.==

I certainly agree w you there. I meant other entities getting involved in those races as we have seen, not DPI or the GA itself.

Comment by low level Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 9:37 am
There are no Dem countywide candidates for state’s attorney, county clerk, circuit clerk, or auditor in McLean County, despite the county going for Biden-Durbin and Pritzker-Duckworth.

Maybe DPI is helping county board candidates but the downballot effort here is still not visible enough.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 9:44 am
=Enjoy the sunlight, guys,=

Yes.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 9:57 am
“The locals put themselves in the spotlight by opposing COVID orders, promising to become sanctuaries for assault weapons, and threatening a Purge from bail reform.”

Picking a fight with a billionaire is rarely a sound tactic.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 10:45 am
Early voted and was saddened to see several positions on the ballot with no Dem candidates, not even a token candidate. The uncontested judgeships were especially upsetting. Can’t win if you don’t play.

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 11:00 am
==Why would anyone touch the Chicago School Board mess right now?==

As a reminder, J.B. controls DPI now, and J.B. isn’t too happy with the Mayor/CTU for constantly blaming the State for their mismanagement. It’d be nice to have at least one J.B. ally on the new CPS Board.

Comment by Just Me 2 Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 11:19 am
=Picking a fight with a billionaire is rarely a sound tactic.=

Especially one that is the chief executive of the state. Just ask the former Paris School District superintendent how that worked out for him.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 11:36 am
JS Mill and MrJM - fantastic insights as usual. Thank you much.

Comment by low level Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 12:03 pm
Many Republicans will never recognize it was they who cheated themselves…some others will never admit it.

Comment by Dotnonymous x Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 12:50 pm
It would sure be nice to be able to slate some candidates.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Oct 7, 24 @ 12:51 pm