Dave Diersen
Illinois Editor

David John Diersen has served as GOPUSA's Illinois Editor since 2000. Dave has been a consultant since 1997 when his Democrat superiors in the Chicago office of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) succeeded in forcing him to take early retirement at age 49 because of his opposition to race and gender based preference giving and because of his participation in a class action lawsuit that claimed such preference giving resulted in age discrimination.

A conservative Republican for all his life, Dave has been a contributing member of the party since 1976. But while he was a federal employee between 1966 and 1997, the Hatch Act prevented him from being active in the party. One of Dave's accomplishments was leading a group of Wheaton residents which finally overcame tremendous opposition from anti-conservatives and succeeded in prompting AT&T Broadband (now Comcast) to begin carrying the Fox News Channel on April 1, 2002 for 56,000 of its subscribers in Wheaton, Warrenville, Winfield, West Chicago, Geneva, St. Charles, and Addison.

In 1999, Dave was appointed as the Republican Precinct Committeeman for Precinct 9 in Wheaton and became a member of the Milton Township Republican Central Committee (MTRCC). Dave was elected as committeeman in 2000 and reelected in 2002 and 2004. Dave's precinct is in the heart of Milton Township and Milton Township is in the heart of DuPage County. DuPage is the second most populous county in Illinois and the most Republican county in the state. For the 2004 primary election, the Republican turnout in Dave's precinct was 33% -- the 2nd highest of the 109 precincts in Milton Township and the 16th highest of 730 precincts in DuPage. 33% of the registered voters in his precinct (143 of 428) cast Republican ballots, 20% of the registered voters in Milton Township (14,653 of 71,762) cast Republican ballots, 17% of the registered voters in DuPage (86,899 of 513,380) cast Republican ballots, and 10% of the registered voters in Illinois (638,502 of 6,264,413) cast Republican ballots.

Since 2000, despite tremendous opposition from MTRCC's anti-conservative members, Dave has been one of MTRCC's most active members. Dave published MTRCC's first website in 2000 and served as MTRCC's webmaster until 2004 when MTRCC's anti-conservatives succeeded in terminating him. While helping with MTRCC's campaign headquarters and fundraising efforts, he has gotten to know many elected officials and candidates. He served as the Milton Township Coordinator for Senator Patrick O'Malley's primary campaign for Governor in 2002. In July of 2003, Dave hosted a picnic in a park he adopted in his precinct -- 200 attended including all five of the announced Republican candidates for U.S. Senate. Dave promoted MTRCC's 2003 Oktoberfest fundraiser and arranged for all the Republican U.S. Senate candidates to speak at the event and participate in a straw poll. The event raised $26,000 for MTRCC.

In 2003, Illinois Center Right Coalition (ICRC) members elected him to serve on ICRC's Steering Committee. He has served as the organization's Treasurer and Finance Committee Chairman and more recently as its webmaster -- its website is www.illinoiscenterright.com. In 2003, he became the First Vice-Chairman of TAPROOT Republicans of Illinois -- its website is www.taprootgop.org. Dave attended the Illinois Republican Party's 2004 convention as a voting delegate.

Dave passed the CPA and Certified Internal Auditor examinations on his first attempt in 1979 and 1981 respectively. He has been a Licensed CPA in Illinois since 1982, a Certified Fraud Examiner since 1990, a Certified Government Financial Manager since 1994, a Certified Financial Services Auditor since 1996, and a Forensic Accountant since 1997. Dave attended the University of Illinois in Chicago between 1966 and 1968. He earned a BS degree in management from Northern Illinois University in 1970, an MBA from Loyola University in 1976, a MS degree in accounting from DePaul University in 1980, and a MS degree in financial markets and trading from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1997.

Dave worked for Park Forest Post Office between 1966 and 1969 as a part-time carrier/clerk while he attended college. He worked for IRS as a Revenue Officer between 1971 and 1980 and for GAO as an Analyst between 1980 and 1986 and as a Senior Analyst between 1986 and 1997. For many years, federal agencies, including USPS, IRS, and GAO, have given preferential treatment to young minorities and to young females because of pressure from Democrat Senators and Representatives. Dave spoke out against that preference giving and in 1988, he joined a class action lawsuit that charged that such preference giving resulted in age discrimination. In 1998, Dave's attorney filed a class lawsuit against GAO charging age discrimination, reverse discrimination, and retaliation. That suit is currently in the United States Appellate Court for the Seventh Circuit. In 1999, Dave became the Treasurer and a Director of Adversity.Net, a nonprofit foundation that fights reverse discrimination. After a long battle, with Congressman Henry Hyde's help, Adversity.Net succeeded in prompting IRS to grant it 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Its website is www.adversity.net.

Dave has been an arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers since 1998 and an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau since 2001. He has been a member of the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) since 2001 and he served as a founding director of AAPC's Midwest Chapter. He published Milton Township's website in 2001 and served as its webmaster until 2004 when anti-conservatives succeeded in terminating him. He served as a Trustee for the township's cemeteries authority between 2001 and 2003.