A Chatham resident and union activist will head the Sangamon County Democratic Party for the next two years, succeeding longtime Democratic stalwart Bill Houlihan.
Diana Carlile, 64, a former Illinois Bell operator and AT&T engineering department employee who retired in 2011, was unanimously elected April 15 in a weighted vote of the local Democratic Party’s precinct committeepersons.
Carlile, a former member of the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, will take over the volunteer role from Houlihan, 72, a Springfield resident.
Houlihan had served as the chair of the Sangamon County Democratic Party since 2021, the same year he stepped down as state director for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin after 25 years of service. He was also the county chair of the Democratic party from 1988-1994. In between, the role was held by Doris Turner, who went on to become a state Senator, and Dan Kovats of Chatham.
Houlihan had wanted to continue as party chair through what is hoped to be Turner’s reelection campaign for Illinois Senate in 2028, but illness made it too difficult for him to continue those duties, according to Kovats, the immediate past 1st vice chair. It was Houlihan’s decision not to seek another two-year term while he recovers from liver and kidney transplants in January in Chicago, Kovats said.
Houlihan’s departure from leadership will be a loss for Sangamon County Democrats, Kovats said.
“He’s forgotten more about Democratic politics than I’ll ever know,” said Kovats, whose full-time job is executive director of the Springfield-based Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association. “He taught me everything I know about organizing, and you know that this is a game of addition and trying to bring as many folks to the table as we can.
“Bill is also a very skilled fundraiser and the reason we’ve been able to be very competitive here locally. And yes, we’ve still got a lot to do locally, but we’ve been able to raise significant amounts of money because of Bill’s connections, and that’s allowed us to help a lot more of our candidates than we’ve done before.”
Houlihan will still be involved in the local Democratic Party “when he’s ready to come back,” Kovats said.
Carlile is a good friend, Kovats said. “She’s going to have to step up on her own and kind of chart a new path for us, and I think she can,” he said.
Carlile served as an elected member of the Chatham Township Board from 2017 to 2021 and is former president of the Springfield and Central Illinois Trades and Labor Council. She was unopposed as a candidate for Sangamon County Democratic Party chair, as were the other officers elected in April.
Deb Grant was elected as 1st vice chair, Richard Thompson will be 2nd vice chair, Micah Miller will be 3rd vice chair, Mike Lopez will be secretary and Neil Calderon will serve as treasurer, Kovats said.
Carlile previously was 3rd vice chair under Houlihan. She said she was asked to run by the party leadership and considered it a “good opportunity to start leading the county party.”
She said, “We’ve got a lot of growth right now and movement, and I want to continue to get Democrats elected.”
Democrats lost their lone countywide officeholder when former county recorder Josh Langfelder was defeated in his reelection bid in November 2024 by former Springfield city clerk Frank Lesko. Lesko won the election by 31 votes with more than 98,000 votes cast.
But Kovats said local Democrats have made gains on other fronts in recent years with the election of more Democrats on the GOP-controlled Sangamon County Board and elections of Turner to the Illinois Senate and the election and reelection of Nikki Budzinski to the U.S. House.
“We’re still looking to recruit candidates for county treasurer and for other County Board seats that are open” in November, Kovats said.
Local Democrats’ best hope for countywide office is Marc Bell, the Democratic nominee for sheriff, Kovats said.
Bell on Feb. 9 announced his intention to withdraw from the race as the only Democratic candidate in the March 17 primary. He posted on his campaign’s Facebook page that a lack of financial support from the Democratic Party was the reason for his decision. He wouldn’t elaborate at that time.
Bell, 62, a Springfield resident and retired Illinois State Police master sergeant, told Illinois Times on April 17 that he didn’t end up filing the necessary paperwork to formally withdraw his candidacy because he was curious how many votes he would receive in the primary.
Bell ended up receiving 11,736 votes, while the Republican incumbent, Sheriff Paula Crouch, received 9,283 votes and Crouch’s GOP challenger, retired sheriff’s deputy David Timm, received 7,850 votes.
Even though there hasn’t been a Democratic sheriff elected in Sangamon County since 1974, Bell said the results show he has an opportunity to win over some Republicans, energize Democrats who don’t vote in primaries and win in November.
“Voters are looking for a change,” Bell said. “They are not happy with the status quo.”
Crouch, who retired after a long career in the Springfield Police Department before being appointed sheriff to replace the retiring Jack Campbell in 2024, has said he considers herself an outsider who brings a fresh perspective for the sheriff’s office. Her critics question that characterization and noted she was endorsed by the county’s Republican Party and by Campbell himself.
Kovats said local Democrats could be smiling after the Nov. 3 election as a side effect of voter dissatisfaction with Republican President Donald Trump.
“I believe that we are going to see a massive anti-Trump year,” Kovats said. “Sangamon County is a Republican county right now, but it’s not MAGA Republican. I think people are going to push back against Trump and the Republican Party that’s enabling him, and if we were ever going to win countywide, this is our best opportunity.”
Diana Barghouti Hardwick, a Springfield resident who was reelected chairperson of the Sangamon County Republican Party this month after serving the past five years, disagreed with Kovats’ prediction.
“We definitely do have two different opinions on the president” among county voters in general, Barghouti Hardwick said. “There are people who love him and some who hate him.”
The biggest challenge to Republicans is one that faces Democrats, as well, she said. It’s the fact that people during the COVID-19 pandemic became more shy about opening their doors when political candidates and their supporters knocked, she said.
“They haven’t gone back to answering their doors,” she said.
