Feature
April 24, 2010
Toni Preckwinkle Shares Campaign Tips
Toni Preckwinkle, the new Democratic nominee for Cook County Board President, visited a Harris School class April 23 to discuss her successful primary campaign and strategy for the upcoming general election.
Although open to the whole Harris School community, her lecture was directed toward students enrolled in the School’s Modern Campaign & Political Strategies elective course, taught by Kevin Conlon of the public affairs consulting and lobbying firm Conlon Public Strategies.
Marker in hand, Preckwinkle, a University of Chicago-educated former high school history teacher, discussed campaign strategies, walking students through every step of her nomination bid. Occasionally she solicited input from two campaign aides to answer students’ questions that ranged from fund-raising tactics to staffing, commercial messaging, and how they clenched both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times endorsements in early January.
Preckwinkle emerged as the front-runner several weeks before the election in a crowded field of Democrats, which included incumbent Todd Stroger. An alderman from Chicago's 4th Ward, she currently represents an area of the South Side that includes Hyde Park and the University of Chicago's main campus.
Initially less known than many of her opponents, Preckwinkle campaigned as a reformer who would thwart corruption and retire a 2008 sales tax increase. In a sweeping victory, she received more than 50 percent of the vote—more than all three other candidates combined.
As Cook County votes heavily Democratic, she has positioned herself as the likely winner in the November general election. Even so, there’s no sign her campaign is slowing down.
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