Party jumping not really flip-flopping

The man's name was Odin Langen. You couldn't get more Republican or Scandinavian, making him a perfect representative for the area where I grew up.

When my dad signed me up at about age 13 to serve food at some sort of political gathering for Langen, it served as my formal introduction to party politics. It also was my last formal involvement.

I recall Langen, who served Minnesotans in the U.S. House from 1959 to 1971, as a perfectly congenial man, one who seemed larger than life to me then. But even at 13, political parties struck me as being mostly about fund-raising, bootlicking and lousy food.

Thus, I can't say I'm surprised there's been a recent flurry of party-changing in Kane County in recent weeks. Kane County, collar county and Fox Valley politics have always struck me as unnaturally strange anyway, being so politically one-sided. Besides a decided preference for Scandinavians, Minnesota has always been a two-party state, with far-right religious types and far-left liberals thrown in. It has made the state an early leader in touting a bizarre combination of family values, anti-abortion rights, gay rights and clean air in public buildings, all at once.

Gopher State voters have regularly put Democrats and Republicans into office at the same time. And they even occasionally reject them all in a blatant show of independence that results in an occasional mistake like Jesse Ventura, but still shocks party regulars to attention.

Thus, while I normally have disdain for people who can't make up their mind, I view the recent Democratization of former GOPers John Noverini, Tom Sandor, Jeannette Mihalec and Keith Farnham more as their coming out of the political closet than of changing their stripes. For the quarter-century I've lived in the area, I've spent a good deal of time chortling as good people of liberal persuasion hid behind their masks and cloaks at Republican masquerades. With growth came a more varied electorate, and Democrats have gone from invisibility to viability, despite still being dramatically outnumbered.

"Up until very recent times, if you wanted to be involved in Kane County politics, you involved yourself as a Republican simply because that was the party had the activity," said Sandor, a former Elgin councilman. He's right.

And it simply could be these four are typical politicians in that they've calculated their competition on the GOP side and decided their chances of election were better as a donkey. I don't really have a problem with that, either.

For example, I know well the beliefs of Noverini, a Kane County Board member from Carpentersville. He doesn't fit either party all that well. He's decidedly fiscally conservative but socially liberal in several areas. And he puts both parties to shame in terms of his willingness to debate and work with those holding differing views.

In the county's first judicial subcircuit election, Noverini could believe he has a better chance of beating the survivor of a GOP primary battle between Patricia Golden and David Akemann than in a three-way race against them.

I happen to believe most voters don't care about parties and, in fact, find party fanatics dangerously distant and divisive. For me, political parties are the root of all political evil -- partly because of that bad food, but mostly because of the cold, hard cash they deliver, accompanied by unbreakable chains.

Still, if that cash ends up buying voters more candidates from which to choose, this area will be far healthier politically than ever before.