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Dems try to rebuild state party after decades of neglect

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Illinois

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

A couple of years ago, a little more than 1,400 voters took Democratic primary ballots in sparsely populated Warren County, which is about an hour west of Peoria. Almost twice that many took Republican ballots.

The Warren County Democratic Central Committee is not exactly a campaign powerhouse. The organization officially opened its PAC with $923.72 in June of 2016. By June 30 of this year, the county party reported having $917.72 in the bank. I couldn’t find any records showing how that $6 was spent.

But last week, the county organization received a $5,000 check from the Rock Island County Democratic Party. Warren is one of 14 counties that received a total of more than $200,000 from the Rock Island Dems last week.

Warren’s check tied with Effingham County’s for being the smallest. The Kankakee County Democrats received about $28,000. Kane County’s Dems received about $20,000. Williamson County got about $14,000. The Metro East’s Madison County Democrats have so far received the largest check in this initial round: $45,495. The Carroll County Democrats have raised an average of about $3,000 a year for the past 18 years, but they received $7,523.50 last week.

As I’ve told you before, the Rock Island Democratic Party Chairman is Doug House, who also runs the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association. Because state campaign finance laws allow unlimited contributions between county-level party organizations, the J.B. Pritzker campaign gave House’s Rock Island Democrats $1 million earlier this year as the first installment on its “Blue Wave Illinois 2018” program.

The idea is to finally try to build the party up at the local level after years of neglect by the top. The Democratic Party of Illinois, run by House Speaker Michael Madigan, has reported raising more than $80 million since 1999, but it has spent precious few dollars to help local parties. Basically, the only time DPI has bothered to work with local party organizations in the past is when they could be helpful with the handful of competitive state legislative races scattered here and there — particularly Speaker Madigan’s House races. And even then, the object wasn’t really to make local parties viable, but to extract whatever human and other resources they had in order to assist Madigan’s campaigns.

Chairman House has, along with the Pritzker campaign, established a grant program. County party organizations can qualify for money by, for instance, opening an office. The local committees are also being strongly encouraged to hire a part-time or full-time administrator, depending on their size.

Some counties will reportedly receive money to send direct mail and run ads on local radio stations and on cable TV. They’re supposed to establish a social media presence, recruit specific numbers of volunteers for phone-banking and door-to-door canvasses, among other things. They’re also supposed to put together a get-out-the-vote program for the final month. This is all new stuff for many local parties.

Several county parties, particularly Downstate, have few actual precinct committeepersons. In Chicago and suburban Cook, precinct captains are appointed by local township and ward committeemen. They don’t have to live in the precincts assigned to them. Everywhere else, committeepersons are elected in their precincts — and it’s not easy convincing people to run for that office, particularly in overwhelmingly Republican areas. However, those county chairs can fill vacancies, and the appointed committeepersons don’t have to live in the precincts they represent, so a big push is on to get counties to a minimum level of 75 percent coverage.

Some local party officials have also been told that the million-dollar contribution from Pritzker is just the first round. More party-building money is coming.

By contrast, as of last week Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign had given a total of about $33,000 divided between nine county and township Republican organizations since the March primary. The Illinois Republican Party chipped in another $25,000 during the same time period for a handful of county organizations.

J.B. Pritzker’s campaign has contributed $5.7 million to various Democratic groups and candidates since the primary, including big bucks to several suburban and Chicago political organizations. Pritzker’s campaign gave the St. Clair County Democrats $200,000 during the primary and it paid off big. Pritzker won St. Clair with 76 percent of the vote.

It’s not like the Democrats are expecting to win all that many Downstate counties this year. In the short-term anyway, I think the plan is simply to try to lose those counties by fewer votes than they have in the past, which will still help the overall effort.

Thoughts?

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:03 am

Comments

The grant idea is a stroke of political genius by Pritzker and House

Comment by Zeep Bow Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:16 am
–The Democratic Party of Illinois, run by House Speaker Michael Madigan, has reported raising more than $80 million since 1999, but it has spent precious few dollars to help local parties.–

Odd behavior for a state party chair, but I’m sure there’s some 3-D Chessmaster thinking behind it.

Probably has something to do with the Grand Conspiracy to put Lisa in the governor’s office in 2026. That plan continues to move along nicely.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:17 am
“Losing downstate by less” will both help Pritzker this year and give those downstate parties something to build off of in the future.

Comment by Arsenal Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:24 am
I tend to be a conservative curmudgeon, and generally disagree with the democrat platform. But I firmly believe in the two, three, or multi- party system of government. Hats off to Mr. Pritzker for initiating this funding support for the county democrat organizations.

Comment by Motambe Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:27 am
RICH….and all your posters thought Rauner had allot of coin. Just Mr $$$$ for the big city helping out the downstate Dems that are dying.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:37 am
There is finally an actual DCCC office in Williamson County. It is actually in a decent visible location on the highway frontage road between Marion and SIUC in Carterville. IF there was one before, I doubt many knew where it was.

Comment by Exit 59 Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:42 am
Doug House for IL Dem chairman please.

Downstate or otherwise embattled Dems should make MJM giving up control of the state party a condition on their vote to keep him as Speaker.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:45 am
A big tip of the cap to both JB & Doug House, building the party from the ground up is long over due.

Comment by Concerned Dem Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:52 am
If this kind of support for downstate county parties continues I might change my name to Confident Dem.

Comment by Concerned Dem Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 9:53 am
Madigan, if he leaves, will leave on his own terms, and only after Rauner bites the dust in November. As for JB being Madigan’s guy, I’m pretty sure JB is bypassing Madigan in terms of rejuvenating the state DPI. He’ll definitely work with the legislature, unlike Governor Gridlock, and with the Speaker and President too, but he’s his own guy.

Comment by PublicServant Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:07 am
Illinois Issues: Gary LaPaille: Madigan’s ‘no’ man and state Democratic party chairman (http://www.lib.niu.edu/1992/ii920212.html)
From the link: The state party now plans a pilot program in which it will target vulnerable local Republicans, then recruit candidates and manage their campaigns.

So why was this never implemented?

Comment by Nuke the Whales Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:10 am
Pritzker is acting like he intends to be a force for many years. He is playing a long game.

The nationally influenced ads made me wonder if the Governor’s position was a short term stepping stone.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:13 am
==IF there was one before, I doubt many knew where it was.==

I definitely don’t recall Baricevic having a prominent office around here, or having anywhere near the amount of campaign activity Kelly has had.

Comment by LXB Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:17 am
This has been in the background for awhile, DPI has been trying to build up local parties since before the primary. Looks like they’ve gotten to a point where they feel comfortable pouring money in. Good! Lot’s of county and township people have been working their rear’s off, trying to fill precinct committeeperson slots. I think the grant program will show a lot of good faith, and displays that they’re putting their money where their mouth is.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:22 am
Its about time, I’ve always found it discouraging dealing with the local parties because DPI never really helps them until a competitive House race comes up.

Comment by Austinman Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:22 am
–Downstate or otherwise embattled Dems should make MJM giving up control of the state party a condition on their vote to keep him as Speaker.–

That should have been the play after the primary.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:25 am
All very interesting . Still doesn’t rectify the fact that Illinois is still wandering around in the darkened depths of the fiscal abyss. JB Pritzker isn’t going to fix that.

Comment by Milonovich Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 10:38 am
The resurgence of small county Democratic offices could be a good thing, if they are accompanied by strategic and logistic support, with good advice on how to spend their new found money wisely. Are House and JB doing more than just handing out money?

Comment by Suburbanon Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 11:03 am
I would submit that the Pritzker campaign has been reading tbe blog and following Willys advice. I believe it will pay off and assist in a victory for Pritzker

Comment by Regular democrat Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 11:35 am
Good news for Madison County. I hope more closed factories reopen.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 11:40 am
“Dems” and “decades of neglect”. Sounds about right.

Comment by City Zen Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 11:53 am
Rich - very good piece, as usual. My guess is that the $6 gone missing from the Warren County Dem PAC was chewed up in bank/minimum balance fees. Given the size of JB’s checking account, he can probably help them get a waiver going forward.

Comment by DarkHorse Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 12:05 pm
Warren was one of the Obama to Trump counties. And the GOP does not have much of an organization either.

Comment by Not a Billionaire Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 12:08 pm
=“Dems” and “decades of neglect”. Sounds about right.=
GOP and “willful destruction” sounds about right too.
Man, isn’t the two-party system great?

Comment by Duopoly Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 12:24 pm
Seems to me the problems for downstate democrats are bigger than anything money can fix. Proof of this rests with the judicial races. These races typically come down to party affiliation, rather than personalities.

In the last few cycles, the Republican judges for circuit and appellate court have won, even though they were outspent by as much as 4:1 by their Democrat opponents.

Comment by Downstate Monday, Jul 23, 18 @ 3:40 pm