OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

The Lake Forest Caucus is not your grandmother’s caucus. Not that there’s anything wrong with your grandmother’s caucus, but those who follow national politics closely may be familiar with Iowa and other states whose process for electing candidates during party primaries involves a fair amount of heated conversation and political jockeying.

Residents of Lake Forest can put those notions of primary caucusing aside when they consider the role the Lake Forest Caucus plays in the city’s local elections. Lake Forest resident David Hunt, President of the Caucus, says it plays more of a human resources role in vetting candidates for elected office.

“Our mandate is to recruit, interview, and recommend for office the elective positions in Lake Forest, which are mayor, city council, and school board, as well as other appointed volunteer positions, various boards, and commissions appointed by the mayor,” Hunt says. “You could think of our role as the H.R. Department for the city.”

The beauty of the Caucus, Hunt says, is that it has allowed Lake Forest to maintain a nonpartisan approach to choosing thoughtful leadership and stewardship over the decades. He likes to say to people that if they love Lake Forest, the Lake Forest Caucus has had an invisible hand and a major imprint on what they’ve come to love about the city.

“We’re blessed with a lot of great capable volunteers, but without that unique process, we probably wouldn’t be where we are today,” Hunt says. “If you think about it, there are many exemplary individuals who otherwise wouldn’t have thought to volunteer for the city, but their friend or neighbor came to them and said, ‘Hey, you know, we need a city council person or we need someone for the parks and rec board’. Due to the good work of the Caucus, these people volunteer and are invited to interview.”

All the members of the Lake Forest Caucus committee are elected by registered voters in Lake Forest, so it’s in and of itself a democratic process. The Caucus consists of 43 members, nine from each of the four wards in the city, and a sevenmember executive committee led by Hunt. All are elected each spring.

In addition to its geographical diversity, by design, Hunt says the Caucus has also maintained gender and political diversity throughout the years. A few years ago, the Caucus looked at public voting registrations of members and found a nearly even split between Republicans and Democrats, and the Caucus is almost evenly split between men and women. It includes recent college graduates as well as retirees.

The Lake Forest mayoral search process started in the spring of last year with about 25 potential candidates comprised mostly of current and former city council members who still reside in the community.

“We went from roughly 25 candidates to seven candidates that we interviewed, to two finalists, and we chose Dr. Stanford “Randy” Tack ultimately as our candidate,” Hunt says. “He went through three rounds of interviewing in front of a subcommittee and then the entire Caucus Committee, so it was a very in-depth, rigorous interview process. We also did reference checks and written candidate statements for him and our other finalist.”

Hunt says what sometimes gets missed in the Lake Forest community is the robust nature of the process the Lake Forest Caucus has in place, particularly for the elected positions. This year, the only position being contested is for mayor. City council candidates and school board candidates are running unopposed.

As far as the mayoral position, Hunt says they’ve landed on a candidate who he and the Caucus Committee believe brings a lot of positives to the position, and Hunt can’t recommend him highly enough.

“I think there’s really three things. His basic love of Lake Forest, and desire to give back to the community he loves,” Hunt says of Tack. “He really impressed upon us his track record of accomplishments in not only his career, but also for the City of Lake Forest. Then a third is just personal attributes in terms of intelligence, decision-making, and really caring about people, which I think comes from his role as a leading doctor from our community.”

Given the nature of today’s politics—the exorbitant amounts of money spent on campaigns, the negative advertising, and the divisive nature of how our current politics works, the Lake Forest Caucus is a refreshing reminder that with the right structure and process, a municipality can be managed with the best interests of its residents in mind.

“The thing I want to impress upon readers is that if you love Lake Forest, a lot of the things you love about it are because of the Caucus,” Hunt says. “A vote for Randy ensures this nonpartisan successful system of recommending citizen volunteers remains in place for the betterment of Lake Forest for generations to come.”

For more information about the work of the Lake Forest Caucus, visit lakeforestcaucus.com.