I Don’t Just Think It, I KNOW!

April 1st, 2007 by ArLynn

The North Shore is going to the polls April 17th, and if Chicago politics are nasty, brutish and corrupt, North Shore politics are, well, NICE. Most North Shore elections are uncontested. Just like in the former Soviet Union, or China, or Cuba. So I can tell you, without the use of a crystal ball, that James Koch of Wilmette, Wendy Serrino of Glencoe, and Robert Merrick of Wilmette will be duly elected to serve on the New Trier School Board. One perk—they get reserved seating at graduation which is not something to take lightly.

I can also predict with complete confidence the landslide that will sweep Ed Woodbury, Ken Behles, Sandy Berger and King Poor into the Winnetka Village Council. I don’t even live in Northfield but I know that Jack Chapin, Fred Teichert, and Joan Frazier are going to be taking their seats on that village’s Council. And the Winnetka Park District Board? Ha! I got the smart money on Susan Snyder, Richard Pierce, Robert Vanden Bosch, and Julie Hanna Goodman.

Someone new to the North Shore might well marvel—what strange confluence of factors allows that if there are four openings on the library board only four people want to serve? No, no, it’s not quite so straightforward as that.

The North Shore uses the Caucus System. The caucus is a very large group of people culled from “wards” in each village—the wards may have only a radius of a few blocks. These caucus members are usually recommended and recruited by other caucus members and they serve two year terms. The caucus as a body creates a nominating committee of five or six people. The nominating committee makes a list of names of folks who might fill the board positions, whether library, park district, village, or school board. The nominating committee then interviews the candidates and creates a slate which is presented to the caucus as a whole. By the time the average citizen thinks “gee, I’d like to run for office” the slate has already been formed and the possibility of running against the slate has been foreclosed.

It is considered very bad form to run as an Anti-Caucus candidate. A few years back, an election for New Trier School Board was disrupted by three women who ran as an alternative slate. They had been interviewed by the nominating committee and felt they were unjustly passed over. They were, of course, defeated—but not before it was disclosed that a caucus member had floated the rumor that one of the noncaucus candidates was a neo-Nazi. It turned out she was simply a Republican which, to the mind of the caucus member, was pretty much the same thing. The caucus member had to relinquish her seat on the caucus amidst threats of a lawsuit against the caucus board itself.

It is presumed that it is only honorable for a board member to be reelected for a second term. When the Winnetka Caucus Nominating Committee failed to renominate Village Trustee Nan Greenough, there was a battle royale. Normally, the caucus meeting to accept the nominating committee’s recommendations would have difficulty getting a quorum—some caucus chairs have creatively allowed someone on a cell phone to be counted as in attendance. But the year of Nan Greenough’s renomination the meeting was placed in the auditorium of the middle school—standing room only, lots of name calling, snubs wherein neighbor refused to say hello to neighbor, accusations that litter had been placed on the Greenough lawn by her enemies and that a tire on her car had been punctured by zealous developers who didn’t like her allegiance to landmark preservation. In the end, the tide was turned, Nan Greenough was slated by the caucus, and by election day, only a few bruised egos were evidence of any sort of contre-temps.

She was a victim, perhaps, of the push-pull of the caucus system. Some years, the caucus might be top heavy with historic preservationists and another year, the caucus nominating committee might be completely under the spell of two or three developmental educational theorists or a group that thinks the village needs to expand the hockey arena. The system is designed to eliminate personal animosity and overt politicking. By and large, it does its job. There is a certain solidity to North Shore politics, and it means that as we approach the April elections there are no charge and counter-charges, no grand exclamations and no rumor-mongering. Negative politicking? Not in this neighborhood! That’s why we read the Chicago papers.