At the beginning of Jeanette Taylor’s insurgent campaign for alderman of the 20th Ward, she had no intention of becoming a cog in the political machinations of the Cook County Democratic Party.

“I figured the amount of time you would have to dedicate” to becoming the ward’s Democratic committeeperson “would be a heavy load,” Taylor said, adding that “people have used [the position] politically for the wrong reasons.”

That was then.

Now, Taylor and a handful of other freshman aldermen who once shunned the Cook County Democratic establishment are gearing up for campaigns to win unpaid positions to lead the party’s fundraising and organizing arms in their respective wards.