OAK PARK DFA MEETING, December 6, 2006

Written by: W A Thomasson on Dec 10, 2006 5:31 PM EST

Linked to groups: Oak Park DFA Meeting

Eric opened the meeting by asking people to report their experiences in the election. The first person he called upon was winning campaign manager Rob. Rob reported that Sen. Harmon had ended up with a very satisfying 77% of the vote. They carried every precinct except 5 in Leyden Township. In fact, it appeared that Rowe’s memorably dirty campaign actually cost him votes – he should have started with more than he had at the end.

Bill reported that he had worked for Joe Vosicky in representative district 46 (Elmhurst and north). Joe apparently lost by approximately 3 votes per precinct but has filed for a recount. Bill observed that he didn’t really expect the recount to change the outcome, but it is important to always have things checked because that’s how you make sure things stay on the up-and-up. Eric suggested that to have a seat that had been held by Lee Daniels end in a virtual tie was a very promising sign, but Bill responded that Reboletti had hardly campaigned – he had apparently considered the Republican nomination equivalent to election.

Todd, who had been Harmon’s field director, said that they had had great people.

Commenting more generally, Rob said that the five state Senate seats the Democrats picked up was their absolute dream – the best they ever hoped for if everything went perfectly. They now have the supermajority that will let them push anything they want through the legislature without a single Republican vote. He thought the reason Democrats only picked up one House seat was that Madigan wasn’t optimistic enough. The Speaker hates to spend money on a losing campaign, which has proven to be a very effective strategy overall. But in this case he wrote off two or three seats that hindsight says could have been winnable.

Rob observed that from now on the Greens will have automatic ballot access throughout the sate, which led Bill to note that when he closed the polls at Addison Village Hall for the Vosicky campaign he could see from the totals that the people who had voted for Whitney had otherwise voted Republican. Which led Rob to point out that Topinka had the lowest percentage vote of any Republican gubernatorial candidate since the days of FDR.

Jim had a question about what is going on with MoveOn. Ben, who is an active member of MoveOn, responded that there is currently a struggle for the soul of the Democratic party. Rahm Emanuel is trying to claim full credit for the November victory, and we must resist those claims. Eric pointed out that Rahm had had a great deal to do with Democratic gains in the House but nothing at all to do with the governors’ chairs the party had picked up.

This led to a brief discussion of why there had been no Congressional pickups in Illinois. Rob said that he thought there simply weren’t enough Democratic votes in the 6th district – there was nothing particularly wrong with the candidate or campaign. But redictricting will be coming up for the 2012 election, and if Democrats have solid control of the legislature in 2010 that could switch maybe three seats. Oak Park could end up back in the 6th district, as it was 30 years ago. (Bill remembers when Henry Hyde was his representative.)

Returning to the national scene, Rob said he agreed with Newt Gingrich that this election represented a major leftward shift on the part of the American electorate. And added, “Lincoln Chaffee may prove that the only thing in the middle of the road is roadkill.”

Matt reported on his election experience. He spent the last week in Missouri working for the McCaskill campaign. On Election Day he was in the call center taking calls about what was going on at the polling places. Instance after instance of voter suppression by Republicans. So bad that everybody from Chicago said they would be glad to get home. But Eric relayed what he had heard from his best man – a Republican activist who had, as it happens, spent Election Day in St. Louis doing exactly the same thing for the Republicans that Matt had for the Democrats. And he had described instance after instance of voter suppression by the Democrats. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he told Eric.

We then turned from the 2006 election to a preliminary discussion of the group’s direction over the next two years. One near-term possibility Eric mentioned derives from a recent conference will with Jim Dean and Tom McMahon, among others: Chicago aldermen Joe Moore and Ricky Munoz have asked for DFA’s help with their reelection campaigns. Many of us know Moore, who was an early, strong Dean supporter. Since Chicago elections are in February (with possible run-offs in April), we will need to make a decision about that next month. April will also see municipal elections, including some in Oak Park. Eric’s a bit reluctant to get involved in the Oak Park elections, however.

Ben suggested that we might want to put a good part of our focus over the coming year or so on issues. The Iraq War forum we sponsored was highly successful, and we should perhaps look to do something similar. Rob suggested a forum on education funding might be good. This is a complex issue – more complex than most people realize – and every choice has a down side. But dissatisfaction is widespread and the time for change may be approaching. Most people seemed to like the idea of an education forum, but no decision on this or any other future direction will be made until the next meeting.

We concluded by watching the 20-muin version of the movie “Iraq for Sale.”

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Thomasson

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Location: Oak Park, IL