Seventy-five-year-old Mrs. Julia Hodgdon Boegholt is a lifelong liberal Democrat who came to Madison, Wisconsin, in 1926 with her husband, who began graduate studies that year under Alexander Meiklejohn. Mr. and Mrs. Boegholt lived near Philip La Follette and their liberal leanings naturally led them into local volunteer work for the progressive faction of the Republican Party. When the movement to liberalize and vitalize the Democratic Party of Wisconsin arose in the early 1940's, Andy Biemiller, former Socialist and Progressive labor leader in Milwaukee and now chief lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, asked Mrs. Boegholt to help organize Democrats in Dane County. Mrs. Boegholt did the spade work in Dane County, 1942-46, and was recognized for her efforts in May 1948 when she was named vice-chairman of the Democratic Organizing Committee (DOC) at its organizational meeting in Fond du Lac. Further recognition of her work came that same year when she was elected national committeewoman at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. When she resigned from that post in 1951 in order to give geographical credibility to Wisconsin's two national committee posts, Mrs. Boegholt became less active in the party.
