It’s OK to be a Democrat in McLean County

...there isn’t really R-p-bl-c-nism in the water.

But, apart from the consistent consciousness of virtue, it must be admitted that the Democratic Party’s struggle here in McLean County has usually gone unrewarded. That, however, seems poised on the brink of change. In recent election cycles, the historic Whig-Republican ascendancy has developed some promising fissures. National, statewide and Congressional Democrats have carried the county, and county candidates have come agonizingly close. In the 2002 electoral cycle, the fissures began to widen into cracks, and Democratic county board aspirants Cathy Ahart, Rick Dean, Duane Moss and Sonny Rodgers wedged open several unaccustomed districts.

Despite the very best efforts of those who have usually won the elections in these parts to characterize their wishes and their myths as history and fact, it remains true that there have always been rather more Democrats in McLean County than the election results have ever indicated. That the Republicans know this is amply evidenced by their ill-concealed glee whenever election day turnouts remain low. Increased voter turnout raises the odds against their candidates, and Republicans know that as well.

Democrats have been "constant irritants" and voices of social conscience here since McLean County was organized at the end of 1830. While the three-way split at the 1948 Democratic National Convention recently re-surfaced in the news with former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott’s incautious praise for Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond’s candidacy in that year, Bloomington Democrat Allen Withers was involved in a similar split at the 1860 Democratic National Convention, as a delegate supporting the Unionist candidacy of Stephen A. Douglas.

Of course, no capsule history of local“big D” Democracy would be complete without reference to our native political dynasty, the Stevenson family. But, in this connection, insufficient recognition has perhaps been given to Lewis G. Stevenson, son of Adlai I (U.S. House, 1875-77, 1879-81; Vice President 1893-97), and father of Adlai II (Governor 1949-53; presidential candidate, 1952 and 1956; UN ambassador, 1961-65), who served as Illinois secretary of state from 1914-17 and was a candidate for the vice presidential nomination at the 1928 Democratic national convention.

Louis FitzHenry, represented our district as a Democrat in the U.S. House, 1913-15, and later served as a U.S. district and appellate judge, originally appointed by Woodrow Wilson.

In the 1930s, our county was slower than others to realize that new ideas would be needed to pull the chesnuts out of the fire; but: (a) in 1932, James Frank Gillespie was elected to the U.S. House for the 17th Congressional District, Martin A. Brennan was elected (and re-elected in 1935) as an at-large Congressman from Illinois, and L.C. Sieberns was elected to the Illinois Senate for what was then the 26th Senatorial District; (b) in 1934, Charles E. Cooley was elected county treasurer; and, (c) in 1936, Bernard E. Wall was elected state’s attorney, George L. Morris circuit clerk, Paul F. Jabsen recorder, and Leo B. Hemmele coroner ..... all Democrats. In the same, tumultuous era, Democrat Louis F. Wellmerling served as mayor of Bloomington, 1935-37 ..... the city then still being governed on a partisan basis. In addition, Chalmers Taylor was elected to a circuit judgeship as a Democrat in the mid-1930s.

Under the "unreformed" Illinois state constitution, cumulative voting maintained minority representation in the three-member state House districts in which McLean County was successively encompassed. While the Democrats were never able to elect two members at any point (not even in the 1930s), neither were we ever "shut out" of representation; viz:

1909-13 Daniel D. Donahue
1913-15 James Frank Gillespie
1915-19 Daniel D. Donahue
1919-21 George E. Dooley
1921-25 Martin Adlai Brennan
1925-29 Jacob Martens
1929-33 Charles P. Kane
1933-45 Joe Russell
1945-55 Edward Kane
1955-57 Joe Russell
1957-69 J.W. (“Bill”) Scott
1969-83 Gerald A. Bradley.

In 1982, the first "reformed" Illinois House was elected ..... from single-member districts ..... and, in general, without Democrats from most of the central districts. Whether the change improved governance in Illinois depends on whom you ask. Hereabouts, we weren’t particularly enthusiastic about it.

Working in the opposite direction, from today back into recent political history, McLean County Democrats have been led into their battles by some concededly exceptional individuals, including:

John F. Penn

In 1984, a labor contingent successfully challenged long-term County chair John Baldini for the Democratic leadership. Two previous primaries and county conventions had seen challenges by John Penn beaten back, but his sustained activity and ultimate success re-energized organized labor involvement with the local

Party, particularly by way of recruiting rank-and-file workers into the precinct level of the organization. Precincts which had previously been open, or filled by dormant place-holders, were gradually filled with enthusiastic activists. Under John’s leadership, great emphasis was laid on contesting local government elections, with particular reference to developing candidacies for the McLean County board, and on assuring a Democratic presence on the non-partisan Bloomington and Normal municipal councils.He has also instituted an annual fund-raising dinner which sets new participation records each year, and has made McLean County a "can’t miss" stop for statewide candidates’ travel to and from Springfield.

John L. Baldini

Many active Democrats “of a certain age” will remember John L. Baldini’s service as our immediate past county chair, and as one of the proprietors of the Lucca Grill, which was McLean County Democratic Headquarters for many years ..... and, incidentally, where the pizza was first introduced to Bloomington palates. Somewhat older Democrats will also remember Party steak fry rallies in the rustic shelter out at the Baldinis’ timbered property – Lucca Forest – out west of Bloomington. John was the last of our county chairs to share Party leadership with elected state representatives – J.W. (“Bill”) Scott, and, later, Gerald A. Bradley – under the old three-member-district/cumulative-voting system; he also served for a time as state central committeeman for the 17th Congressional district. In John’s memory, the McLean County Democrats make an annual scholarship award to a deserving Illinois State University student, dedicating one-third of the proceeds from the Party’s summer fundraising dinner to this purpose.

Phil C. Auth

Phil Auth was also a Bloomington restauranteur (there seems to be some sort of a symbiotic relationship between east central Illinois Democrats and food), and his service to McLean County Democrats bridged the national Republican resurgence of the Eisenhower years. Had he lived to be present, Phil would not have been surprised to see that, at Adlai Stevenson II’s funeral, there wasn’t one, local, unrelated individual in the first three ranks of mourners at the graveside who had voted for him ..... whether for governor in 1948, or for president in 1952 and 1956. In addition to being a “traitor to his class” in the mould of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the native son whose three campaigns were the principal events of Phil Auth’s tenure as county chair was also “a prophet without honor in his own country”. One man who did stand in the front row at Stevenson’s graveside, and who had voted for Stevenson – at least in 1952 and 1956 - was Lyndon B. Johnson, who had recently been only the second Democratic presidential candidate to carry McLean County since the Civil War.

And, so......
Entering this new century and millenium, McLean County Democrats will continue as they have done since 1830 ..... representing the peoples’ issues and championing the rights of individuals, the common good of humanity, and the interests of working families. As the prospects we face have brightened, so have the threats darkened. There is nothing “particular” about McLean County; we remain, as John Donne put it, “No...island,...[but]...a part of the whole.”, and immune to none of the domestic or international perils which confront the general society. There will be no end of challenges for us to face; we are no more “blessed” than were our political forebears, and no less “called” to the good work than they were. What has changed is the local political dynamic; and what must change is the spirit in which we turn our hands to opportunities which our political forebears only rarely had, and which will not be our own for an indefinite time.

"Carpe diem!"..... seize the day ..... every day.

No one seeks another national cataclysm, nor can we rely upon disarray among the opposition, to assist our future success. We must organize, and, then, in the words of an old Democrat from the bare-knuckles political era, "Plan your work, then work your plan!"