BEING INDEPENDENT

It is very difficult politically to be self-determining; one has to declare at primary voting time exactly which party ticket one wants to vote for. It does not matter if one likes a particular person for Governor in one party and a particular person for Attorney General in another, there has to be a total commitment to one side only. No waffling allowed! At the general election is when a person gets the opportunity to vote for candidates from different parties for different offices. One does not have to straight party vote. While I am a Republican at heart, there are many Democratic candidates that I vote for because I simply think they will do a better job than the Republican candidate. Or in the case of the gubernatorial election in Illinois, I will vote for Independent candidate Scott Lee Cohen. But what if someone has chosen to represent their party as a committeeman? Are they only allowed to support candidates from one party even if they think someone else is more qualified? In an August 15th story, Bernard Schoenburg, political columnist for The State Journal-Register, wrote the following:

“Cohen gets local support

The tip of a small rebellion showed itself last week, with word that Margaret Ann Gramlich, a Department of Revenue worker, Democratic precinct committeewoman and president of the North End Improvement Association, has a sign in her yard supporting independent gubernatorial candidate Scott Lee Cohen.

Gramlich said she and a couple other local Democrats recently had lunch with Cohen. He seemed “very, very sincere” and was “a very easy person to talk to,” she said. She thinks the allegations against him in the past are no more than that.

“I think he’s going to really turn out to be a good governor if he wins,” she said.

She said she’s disappointed with Quinn because some people installed by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the Revenue Department still work there, and Republicans are being hired.

Bill Houlihan, a former Sangamon County Democratic chairman and downstate director for Durbin, said he called Gramlich and told her he thinks committeemen should support the ticket or step down.”

Committeewoman Gramlich made a commitment to the Democratic Party when she thought that they would have the best candidates. When she decided the party and its gubernatorial candidate, Pat Quinn, had disappointed her, she made the choice to support Scott Lee Cohen. Should she step down as a Democratic precinct committeewoman? No! Not if she values her independence. Our country was formed by the Declaration of Independence that declared the 13 states were no longer part of the British Empire. Gramlich has declared that she is no longer beholden to King Madigan; and good for her! I just hope it does not cost her the job she holds at the Revenue Department, a position held at the discretion of Quinn.