In a few hours it will be official. I will be elected to the county board for my district. It all started last November. A friend and former neighbor called me and asked me if I would be interested in running for the county board. I told her that my interest was “less than negative zero”.
Seems that one of the current board members is pretty old and feeble and he wasn’t going to run again. As far as she knew I would be running unopposed. Out of respect for her and our friendship I agreed to sit down with her people and listen to what they had to say before I told them no.
We met I told them I would think it over but I still didn’t want to get into local politics. I am already on two boards that represent the county. (The county planning commission and a multi county board that helps displaced workers and youth acquire the training they need to become employable or re-employable as the case may be.
I talked it over with my wife and a few close friends and decided to see what happens. Worst case scenario was I wouldn’t win but I would still get a little name recognition for our agency.
I needed to get a whopping 10 signatures to run in the Republican primary. (For the most part there is not a viable Democrat Party here. Democrats run as Republicans for county office.) 2 of the 3 board members terms were up. As I said one wasn’t going to run again. I spoke to the other and he was. There are two different terms. A 2 year term and a 4 year term. I told him I would take which ever one he didn’t want. He was a bit reluctant to commit but he agreed he would take the term I didn’t select. Finally I said that would take the 2 year term. In all fairness to him that would keep him from running again so soon. He agreed.
Shortly after that I received a phone call from someone else and the politics began. The other guy is a friend of the current board member that I just spoke to. He said, “Let’s keep our conversation between you and me.” Yeah that sounds like a problem to me. He said he wanted to run against the current board member. (I didn’t believe that.)
Both of these gentlemen filed petitions for the 2 and 4 year terms. I got word that they were doing this but declined to do likewise. I gave my word that I was running for the 2 year position not only to these guys but to the people signing my petition. After they saw that I was only filed for the 2 year position the incumbent withdrew from the 4 year race while his buddy, the one who called me and said he would love to run against him withdrew from the 2 year race. I am sure it was a coincidence.
Long story short, the guy I was running against went to Florida for 3 months. I guess he thought I was going to be so easy to defeat he did nothing. I got local people to back me including my former Congressman and I won the primary.
Today I am unopposed as are every other board member who is running for office.
The guy who will win the 4 year term has run 3 other times and lost each time. The first time he did it the correct way, he ran on the Democratic ballot. He lost. The next two times he ran on the Republican ballot and lost big. People know that he is a “Chicago Democrat” and was a union leader in his local and above and they wouldn’t vote for him. I didn’t care one way or the other. I knew he was a bit of a blow hard but pretty harmless. He likes to be heard so let him.
It’s been a hectic year. Who knows what the next few will bring. More meetings, more responsibility that is for sure.