Democrats can do better

To the editor:

Here we go again, the arrogance and disconnect from common sense of some St. Clair County Democratic officials.

One example is St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge John Baricevic. John does not see the ethical questions that have been raised by his role on the 11-member task force charged with monitoring the proposed location, design, and funding of the Mississippi River Bridge.

If we allow the assumption that Baricevic is an expert on transportation issues, does that mean he is the only person available with expertise to serve on the task force? It is laughable that this guy is good at bringing people together.

Next we have Jerry Costello stepping up to run for State Central Committeeman because he feels he is the obvious choice to replace Sam Flood when nobody heard anything from Sam Flood that he was stepping down.

Now we go to East St. Louis and take a look at Alvin Parks. Alvin’s mother gave him a pay raise of $9,000 after he had been in a politically created job for only a couple months.

The three mentioned situations are examples of how arrogant, exclusive, and greedy some of the current leaders are throughout the St. Clair County Central Democratic organization.

Unfortunately, we can’t look to our Democratic governor for any respite.

Governor Blagojevich recently released $195 million dollars in member initiatives (pork barrel projects) that as candidate Blagojevich he so criticized. With his poll numbers down, a light bulb suddenly went off in his head that the initiatives were a great idea. The saddest thing about the governor is that he thinks he is outsmarting the voting public.

As a Democrat I am seriously concerned about the future of the Democratic Party.

We are going to need some courageous Democrats to step forward and change the course of the ship before it totally sinks. We can do better as Democrats and we must.

Ray Coleman
Fairview Heights