In the March 2004 primary, Democrats in Lake County cast nearly 1000 more votes than Republicans. The total Democratic vote was 47,193 -- 48% of the primary ballots. That may not sound like much unless you know that just eight years ago, Democrats cast only 21% of Lake County ballots.

Nevertheless, Democrats have been elected to state and local offices in Lake County for the past 35 years. In 1970, the late, great Grace Mary Stern became the Democrats first county-wide official when she was elected County Clerk. Democrats held that office for the next 24 years (12 under Stern; another 12 under Linda Hess). The 1970's also saw the election of Sheriff E.J. (Chick) LaMagdellan and State's Attorney Dennis Ryan. Democrats also elected their first State Senator from Lake County, Bill Morris, to represent the Waukegan area.

In 1992, Terry Link became chair of the Lake County Democratic Party. In that same year, Grace Mary Stern won a State Senate seat and Lauren Beth Gash was elected State Representative from the Highland Park area. Several Democrats also won County Board seats that year, including Carol Spielman, who still serves on the board.

Four years later, Terry Link became the third Democratic State Senator from Lake County and Mary Ellen Vanderventer was elected Recorder of Deeds, positions they both still hold. In 1998, Susan Garrett was elected State Representative from the Lake Forest area. She was reelected once to that position, then became Lake County's fourth State Senator from the Democratic party in 2002.

In 2000, Link became the first Democratic State Senator reelected to that office and Karen May was elected State Representative from the Deerfield area. That year also saw State Rep. Lauren Beth Gash run an extremely competitive campaign for 10th District U.S. Representative against Mark Kirk, ultimately losing by less than one percent of the vote.

In 2002, Eddie Washington was elected State Representative from the Waukegan area and Kathy Ryg began representing the Wheeling/Vernon Hills area.

Since 2000, three new organizations have also been launched to help get out the Democratic vote:

• the Eighth District Democrats & Independents (www.illinoiseddi.com) headed by Nancy Shepherdson
• the Tenth District Democrats (www.tenthdems.org) led by the Honorable Lauren Beth Gash
• the Lake County Democratic Women (www.lcdw.org) chaired by the Honorable Mary Ellen Vanderventer.

Democrats currently hold nearly half of the legislative seats in Lake County (5 of 12). Even better, every legislative and county board seat in the county is being contested in 2004. The residents of Lake County finally have the choices they need to make democracy work!