Riverside Caucus is not a Political Party
Riverside Landmark Letters to the Editor
January 13th 2009
The Riverside Community Alliance mistakenly refers to the Riverside Community Caucus (RCC) as a political “party” (“RCA Announces ‘09 Campaign Platform,” News, Jan. 7).
That is incorrect. “Caucus” refers to a community-based process. The RCC is the local organization that carries out that process within our village. The RCC is entering its 82nd year of service. We are a community caucus, not a political party or entity.
What this means is that the membership of the RCC attempts to mirror the diverse elements that meld together to create our village. The RCC is nonpartisan, and its membership is open. It currently has 75 members who are all Riverside residents. Many of the members are active in a variety of different community organizations.
The purpose of the RCC is to identify the best potential candidates for village government. For this current election, RCC contacted more that 75 possible candidates whose names were submitted by the public.
The RCC advertises the open village board posts for candidates wishing to serve. It doesn’t matter who puts a particular name in for consideration. We interview everyone who is interested.
The RCC nominating committee, which has different participants for every election, studies the applicant’s resume, application and experience. The RCC looks for integrity, leadership skills, ability to work with a team, ability to listen, consensus-building skills, communication skills, honesty, time to commit to the job, community activity background and, of course, grace under pressure.
The RCC is not concerned with an individual’s position on a particular issue, or if he or she even has one. The RCC looks at a potential candidate’s ability to think through an issue and make his or her own, informed decision in the best interest of the village, without being worried about popularity or pleasing any particular person or organization.
Once this process has been completed candidates are brought before the entire Caucus for presentation and questioning. A group vote is taken on the future candidates to be endorsed.
The RCC itself has no position on any issue except a desire for good government. The RCC’s membership is very diverse, and likely wouldn’t agree on many issues as a group.
In the past we have supported candidates under one umbrella who have had completely different views on important things happening in the village. For example: The RCC’s current candidate for president originally was elected to the board as an independent, but has demonstrated through his performance the qualities mentioned above.
RCC candidates are unified in their commitment to good government, but have their own opinions about our Village and its future. Nobody is ever expected to embrace any particular political ideology. The RCC believes that traditional partisan politics and the divisiveness it often engenders is an impediment to good governance in a small, historic village such as ours.
The challenge is to find candidates who are individuals, yet work as part of a team to better our community.
Jennifer White
Riverside
