Happy Holidays, 2013!

[ UPDATE: Very sorry, I failed at first to give credit to the author of the text below.  This is, of course, Dianne‘s write-up of the year.  Thank you, Dianne!  Steve ]

It’s that time of the year, once again, when we have an opportunity to reflect and then—to plan! 2013 was an amazingly complex, exciting, challenging year for the Naperville Township Democratic Organization.

Our 2013 candidates for Township Offices, plus the Executive Board. (L-to-R, Bob Fine, Paul Mandrik, Jay Mitchell, Rose Johnson, Max Bochmann, Steve Purduski, Dianne McGuire, Ron Allen, Lisa Bosco)

December, 2012….the Democratic Township caucus was held and we nominated the following individuals to run for the various offices of the township:

• Ron Allen, Max Bochmann, Bob Fine and Richea Dougherty for Trustees
• Rose Johnson, Clerk
• Steve Purduski, Supervisor
• Paul Mandrik, Highway Commissioner

This is an intensely partisan race which occurs every four years…although we did not prevail, we ran excellent campaigns for all candidates and will be ready to go in 2017!

Bill Habel, 2013 candidate for Naperville City Council

Bill Habel ran an exceptional campaign for a seat on the non-partisan Naperville City Council. We’ll see who throws their hat in the ring in 2015 when all 8 seats are open, as well as the mayor’s office.

Ed Agustin chose to run for a seat on the College of DuPage Board of Trustees…would have been a wonderful addition to the Board

We enjoyed having Governor Quinn as our honored guest for our annual fundraiser on April 25th…with Naperville City Council members Judy Brodhead, Bob Fieseler, Steve Chirico, and even Mayor Pradel in attendance! Steve Purduski chaired the fundraising committee for our Fall fundraiser at the Comedy Shrine at Fox Valley. Great night full of good humor and we achieved our fundraising goal for the event!

And, then there are those parades! St. Patrick’s Day is always so cold, except for 2012 when it was like 70 degrees! The Labor Day/Last Fling parade is always a highlight of the year, as it was this year! Our theme is always “A Salute to Labor” and our friends from many of the local trades unions proudly march with us! Laborers 288, with Casey Bobak at the helm, had a great contingent of marchers this year! Congressman Bill Foster also marched with us and joined us for the post parade party at Sullivan’s! Governor Quinn had his own parade entry and we helped to give him an impressive number of marchers.

Petition passing took on a greater urgency this year as both Governor Quinn and our own Ed Agustin got a late start on getting those signatures. On Sunday, November 24th our NTDO volunteers gathered over 200 petition signatures for the governor and Ed, as well as other statewide and county wide candidates.

We’ve had a year full of great speakers at our monthly meetings…and have a good line-up for 2014 starting to take shape. Come join us on January 30th for a presentation on ALEC by Steve Macek, NCC professor.

Steve Bosco, 2013 Precinct Committeeman of the Year

At our recent holiday party we were proud to announce our Precinct Committeeman of the Year for 2013: Steve Bosco, Precinct 58! His willingness to complete every task with excellence—whether it was petition passing, poll watching, door knocking, meeting attendance, recruiting election judges…you name it, Steve did it well! He serves as a model for all of us as he truly “walks the talk” and makes a difference on behalf of our Democratic principles!

Ed Agustin, 2014 candidate for Illinois State Assembly

And, finally, let’s rejoice in the newly minted candidacy of Ed Agustin for State Representative for District 41! And, for the victories in 2012 of Tony Michelassi for County Board 5 and Stephanie Kifowit in District 84, and, of course, Bill Foster’s spectacular victory!

Next year? We will continue to stay true to our mission, which is to recruit and elect Democratic candidates to office! You can be a part of all this excitement…please join with us to make a progressive difference!

Best of health and happiness to each of you in 2014…Dianne, Chair