BALTIMORE — Watching the Democratic Party’s regional forum here last week, my mind kept flashing back to that nearly century-old Will Rogers crack, “I am not a member of any organized party — I am a Democrat.”

In normal times, the selection of a Democratic chair is one of those topics that primarily interest political reporters in the postelection doldrums and consultants hoping for future contracts. But with the Democrats in their worst shape organizationally since the 1920s, the choice of a permanent successor to Debbie Wasserman Schultz takes on larger-than-usual significance.

The race for party leader, which is slated to be decided at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Atlanta on Feb. 25, has been portrayed as a proxy war between the Bernie Sanders brigades backing Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison and the Barack Obama–Hillary Clinton establishment rallying around former Labor Secretary Thomas Perez.

But this is an oversimplification of the struggle to win a majority among the 447 members of the DNC. High-profile endorsements like Chuck Schumer for Ellison and Joe Biden for Perez matter far less to, say, a party official from Montana than the hopes of getting an additional $50,000 from the DNC to hire a full-time organizer.

The fascination with symbolism surrounding Ellison and Perez has obscured the potential kingmaker roles that could be played by the other three serious candidates in the race: New Hampshire party chair Ray Buckley; Jaime Harrison, his counterpart in South Carolina; and Pete Buttigieg, the 35-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana.