I want to be elected

I'm installing some new equipment today, so I don't have a lot of time for posting. Do want to say a couple of words about today's primary.

I live in DuPage County, Illinois, a traditionally Republican area. The county includes such suburbs of Chicago as Wheaton, parts of Aurora, Naperville, Hinsdale, Oak Brook - the bastions of what passes for old money in the western suburbs. As old money is wont to do, it tends to support conservative values of letting old money stay old.

What hasn't happened as much as expected is the influx of new, perhaps liberal-oriented voters. That was supposed to happen, the so-called High Technology Corridor, but that hasn't really panned out as companies like Lucent Technologies and Tellabs have declined sharply in employees and influence, and now Argonne Labs and Fermilab look to be losing funding.

However, the northern part of the county has seen an influx of immigrants the last decade or so, so there has begun to be a growing Democratic Party presence. It's still not enough to make DuPage anything other than reliably Republican, no matter the travails of the party in recent years.

[Note: at some point I plan to write a long post about my evolution as a voter; suffice it to say for now that, staunch Republican though I have been all my adult life, the Reagan/Bush II years have cured me of that. I'm not sure what I am now.]

In this year, though, with Bush as unpopular as a president can be, one might think that Illinois Democrats would put forth some effort, even in DuPage. I know a lot of people who can't stomach the thought of McCain or Romney (either would be Reagan III, if you believe their rhetoric), and are taking a Democratic ballot today.

And what are we seeing? A race for President...and that's it. No race for state senator or state representative, single names for the federal senate and house, and so forth. Not even a contest for Commissioner of the Forest Preserve. It takes about 45 seconds to vote. Seems to me that the party could make more of an effort, especially on a day when interest in the Democratic ballot has to be remarkable.