VOTES ARE IN – DPDC ELECTS A NEW CHAIR
By
Chris Hotchkins
The
Democratic Party of DuPage County has a new Chair! Cynthia Borbas, former Chair
of Wayne Township Democrats, was elected Chair in a Special Meeting of the
Central Committee of the Democratic Party of DuPage County on Wednesday,
February 27. It is exciting that 362 Democratic precinct committeepersons
attended the Special Meeting and voted. In the election of officers, state
election code and the bylaws of the DPDC call for a weighted vote, which means
each Precinct Committeeperson votes the number of Democratic ballots voted in
the most recent primary election in his or her precinct. In this election there
was a total of 37, 802 Democratic votes represented by the precinct
committeepersons in attendance. Cynthia received 22,628 weighted votes. PC’s in DuPage County were pleased that we
had two qualified and competent women candidates for Chair—Cynthia Borbas and
Diane Hewitt, both of whom have contributed much to the recent success of
Democrats in DuPage County.
Prior
to the election the PC’s present voted to repeal a section of the DPDC bylaws
that said a candidate for elected officer of the DPDC must have served two
terms as a precinct committeeperson. With this repeal, any Precinct
Committeeperson in DuPage County may run for officer of the Democratic Party of
DuPage County.
There
was a question presented regarding whether appointed PC’s could vote in this Special
Election. Normally the Chair of the DPDC and the Treasurer are elected at the
County Convention, held every two years about a month following the Primary
Election at which precinct committeepersons are elected. During the period
between the Primary and the County Convention, the parties are not permitted by
law to appoint precinct committeepersons. This means that only elected PC’s may
vote at the County Convention. This recent election was a Special Election
required by the resignation of the former Chair, Bob Peickert, and of Treasurer
Bob Jeffers. Therefore, appointed PC’s were eligible to vote in this election.
At
this special meeting we also elected a new Treasurer, Steve Schenk, who will
take over for our own Bob Jeffers who served as Treasurer of DPDC for many years.
We must say a very big THANK YOU to Bob Jeffers for his many years of excellent
and highly competent service as Treasurer.
Cynthia
will be collaborating with the Executive Committee of DPDC, Democratic township
organizations, and PC’s throughout the county to develop a specific strategic
plan for moving our county party forward to great victories in 2020. Cynthia
also plans to hold frequent opportunities for precinct committeepersons to sit
and chat with her over coffee in the DPDC office.
