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Who are the people in your neighborhood? Having attended the New Committeeman Training Seminar a few weeks ago, it occurred to me how much value there was in this event and how every committeeman could learn a lot from these gatherings. It’s not just the superb instruction of the program developed by Bob Grogan, our County Auditor and Downers Grove Township Committeeman. It’s the added bonus of tapping every resource in the room. Truthfully, many of the attendants in the room above and beyond the newbies were committeemen who might be among the best in the county. They’re already very good at what they do. What motivated them to get up early on a Saturday morning and schlep out to Bloomingdale for this early event? Like a lot of us, they look forward to the camaraderie of other really good committeemen. They are generous in sharing their techniques. There’s a certain pride in informing others when the best time is to hit townhouses, how leaving material in different places is more effective with certain styles of housing, how visiting an apartment complex often enough might yield an “insider” who will get your material and letters to the voters. All good stuff. Sure, anyone can drop a bag or envelope at or near a door. We’re not talking about “anyone” here. These folks want to move votes in the effort to move elections. As a group, we’d do better to share more with each other. When I walk well-worked precincts, it’s very clear to me. Does anyone know that Tony Cuzzone gets more home baked items from his precinct than other committeemen? The folks there like him and subsequently they care what he thinks. Candy Bishop at Beacon Hill writes for “The Bugle”, the Beacon Hill newsletter. She’s on the welcoming committee and the hospitality committee there. People care what she thinks. Dan Kordik has published a newsletter for his precinct to keep voters updated. Those folks care what he thinks. When Michael Ledonne bought a new house and moved his family, he confined his search to the boundaries of his precinct. He’s spent a lot of time walking those blocks and getting to know people. And you guessed it, they care what he thinks. Good committeemen get the material out. Great ones become an integral part of their precinct. They attend block parties, make a lot of phone calls, walk their dogs throughout the precinct and become a generally strong resource to the people who live there. They become dependable to people. Gasp! The great ones even walk their precincts sometimes mid-term when there’s no election. They get to know and depend on the people they’re turning out. Emil Haddad can tell you within a small margin exactly how many Republicans and Democrats will vote in his precinct. He relies on his phone as much as his walking shoes these days, but all of the years of shoe leather made a difference. Jeff Mussato is a guy well known in his precinct. It has everything to do with people seeing him regularly pounding the pavement there. Many know him by name. The ones who don’t could pick him out of a lineup with great ease! This column will talk about a lot of individual committeemen over time. Our dear late friend Mary Jo Arndt used to lament when a Republican moved away and a Democrat moved into her precinct. She would tell me it may take a full generation to get them to realize why they moved here and get them pulling Republican ballots. She was right. She was great at this. Many of the people who moved here knew the Democratic Party to be the one that got things done and cared personally for them. Yet, eventually they moved here anyway. Why? For the same reason you did; safe streets, more property, better schools, less traffic and better opportunities. We’ve created an attractive place. What we haven’t done as well is explain why this place is this way. In large part, we’ve governed better. Our neighborhoods depend on neighbors being good neighbors, not waiting for government at any level to increase our quality of life. Living very close to one another breeds a feeling of closeness among neighbors (or the exact opposite!) If all your neighbors are proud Democrats, why wouldn’t you be? We’ve got plenty of proud Republicans living in our neighborhoods, it’s time that we encourage our voters to share that sentiment with new neighbors. A committeeman can help that happen. All we have to do is decide to do it. |
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