Toni Preckwinkle

Toni Preckwinkle

Toni Preckwinkle is a long serving Chicago Alderwoman, and since 2010, a Cook County Commissioner.

AAMP endorsement

In 2020 Toni Preckwinkle was endorsed by Asian American Midwest Progressives.

Salute to Harold Washington

On April 6, 1983, the Hyde Park Herald published an endorsement from the Hyde Park/Kenwood Citizens Committee of Democratic Party Chicago mayoral candidate Harold Washington. Signatories to the endorsement included Toni Preckwinkle and Zeus Preckwinkle.

Friends of Alice Palmer

In the mid 1990s Hon. Toni Preckwinkle was listed as a member of Friends of Alice Palmer (in formation), alongside Danny Davis, Tony Rezko, Timuel Black and Barack Obama.

"Progressive Chicago" event

200 people attended a panel presentation on "The Progressive Potential of Chicago City Politics" December 8 1998 at the University of Chicago. The panelistsincluded Jackie Grimshaw, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Alderman Helen Shiller and Bernard Craighead. The event was sponsored by the University of Chicago Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section and the Hispanic Association for Cultural Expression and Recognition.

Backing Barack Obama

In 1995, Barack Obama went to see his alderman, Toni Preckwinkle, after South Side Chicago politics was upset by scandal. Local Congressman Mel Reynolds, was facing charges of sexual assault of a sixteen-year-old campaign volunteer-eventually resigning his seat.) The looming vacancy interested several politicians, including state senator Alice Palmer, who prepared to enter the congressional race.

Palmer represented Hyde Park—Obama’s neighborhood—and, if she ran for Congress, she would need a replacement in Springfield, the state capital. The Palmer seat was what Barack Obama had in mind when he visited Alderman Preckwinkle.

“Barack came to me and said, ‘If Alice decides she wants to run, I want to run for her State Senate seat,’ ”

Preckwinkle soon became an Obama loyalist, and she stuck with him in a State Senate campaign that strained or ruptured many friendships but was ultimately successful. Four years later, in 2000, she backed Obama in a doomed congressional campaign against a local icon, the former Black Panther Bobby Rush. In 2004 Preckwinkle supported Obama during his improbable, successful run for the United States Senate.

Speaking with Obama

Barack Obama spoke at a Democratic Socialists of America organized forum at the University of Chicago in early 1996.

Over three hundred people attended the first of two Town Meetings on Economic Insecurity on February 25 in Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago. Entitled "Employment and Survival in Urban America", the meeting was sponsored by the UofC DSA Youth Section, Chicago DSA and University Democrats.

The panelists were Toni Preckwinkle, Alderman of Chicago's 4th Ward, Barack Obama, candidate for the 13th Illinois Senate District, Professor William Julius Wilson, Center for the Study of Urban Inequality at the University of Chicago, Professor Michael Dawson, University of Chicago and Professor Joseph Schwartz, Temple University and a member of DSA's National Political Committee.

DSA endorsement

Among the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America endorsed candidatesin the 1998 Chicago municipal elections were Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Michael Chandler (24th) and Joe Moore (49th) who easily won re-election with landslide victories.

Saul Mendelson's funeral

The Memorial Service for Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Saul Mendelson was held on Sunday, March 29, 1998, at the First Unitarian Church, Chicago.

The service was MC'd by a retired colleague, Bob Clark. Carl Shier of DSA, spoke first and was followed by Saul's friend Deborah Meier, "a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient who is now starting a new school in Boston". Amy Isaacs, National Director of the Americans for Democratic Action, spoke of what "Saul had meant on foreign affairs to the ADA".

Other speakers included Communist Party USA aligned Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, State SenatorBarack Obama, Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and "a good friend from New York", Myra Russell.

The concluding remarks were made by an old friend, Harriet Lefley, a former Trotskyist with Saul Mendelson in the 1940s, who was then Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami Medical School.

Eulogies also came from Quinn Brisben, (Socialist Party USA presidential candidate 1976, 1992) and David McReynolds (Socialist Party USA presidential candidate 1980, 2000).

Both Brisben and McReynolds are also members of Democratic Socialists of America.

Business and Professional People for the Public Interest

In 2008, Toni Preckwinkle was listed as a sponsor/financial contributor to the Chicago based Business and Professional People for the Public Interest.

Endorsed Communist Party affiliate's State Rep. run

On June 25, 2011, Communist Party USA affiliate Rudy Lozano, Jr. announced his second bid for State Representative, for the 21st District.

Lozano's listed endorsers were;

• State Senator Iris Y. Martinez, 20th District
• State Representative Cynthia Soto, 4th District
• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle
• Cook County Commissioner Robert Steele, 2nd District
• Cook County Commissioner Jesus G. Garcia, 7th District
• Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez, 4th District
• Alderman Ricardo Munoz, 22nd Ward
• Alderman Joe Moore, 49th Ward

Mayoral run?

First-term Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel could face a challenge from the mentor of his old boss, President Barack Obama, in 2014.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle may have her sights on the job, the Chicago Sun-Times reports, though she insists she is running only for re-election this year.

Preckwinkle could be Emanuel's "worst nightmare," according to Sun-Times veteran City Hall reporter Fran Spielman.

Emanuel has alienated the black community, the Sun-Times's Carol Marin notes, by closing neighborhood schools while opening charter schools. He also has angered police and firefighters in contract talks.

Though Preckwinkle says she isn't running, observers note a mayoral campaign would not be so different from that of Harold Washington. In 1983 Washington had just been re-elected to Congress, yet made a quick turnaround and beat the political odds to become Chicago's first black mayor.

Preckwinkle, if elected, would be the city's first black female mayor.

Losing after one term would be a twist for Emanuel, who took office in 2011, fresh off a cabinet position as Obama's chief of staff. It was Preckwinkle who once mentored Obama in his early days in Chicago.

Preckwinkle supported Obama's run for state Senate in 1996 and his unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2000. She took credit for Obama joining the church of the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

She has since soured on Obama, though, Breitbart notes. She was an Obama delegate in 2008, though she was already expressing doubts about him then.

Among those interested in seeing a Preckwinkle run is leftist radical Bill Ayers.

"She could be a formidable opponent," Ayers told Chicago magazine in December. "But the problem is she doesn’t have anything like the money [Emanuel] has and she screwed herself [by being too close to] the Democratic machine."

Harold Washington supporter

In September 2014, when Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner invoked words of former mayor Harold Washington, to attack incumbent Governor Pat Quinn, a coalition of leaders who worked with, supported and espoused Harold Washington ideals and policies issued the below statement. Leaders who issued the statement are U.S. Representative Bobby Rush (D-1st), U.S. Representative Robin Kelly (D-2nd), U.S. Representative Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-4th), U.S. Representative Danny Davis (D-7th), Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia, Timuel Black, the Rev. Clay Evans, Jacky Grimshaw and the Rev. Dr. B. Herbert Martin:

“Harold Washington would be rolling over in his grave to see this desperate commercial run by a billionaire who didn’t hire a single African American executive at his own business and who wants to eliminate the minimum wage.

“Those who remember and loved Harold Washington know that he spent his entire career fighting against the Republican, anti-worker, benefit-the-rich policies that Bruce Rauner wholly represents.

“This is another desperate effort by a billionaire trying to change the subject from an ongoing federal trial targeting his company after misdeeds that led to the abuse, neglect and death of many senior citizens under his watch. Bruce Rauner can’t avoid responsibility for his business.”

Kim Foxx receives $250K donation from Toni Preckwinkle

Tina Sfondeles and Dan Mihalopoulos of the Chicago Sun Times reported in June 2016 that Kim Foxx received a $250K donation from Toni Preckwinkle.

From the article:

"Former state and federal prosecutor Donna More on Friday lifted the cap on donations to candidates in the Cook County state’s attorney’s Democratic primary race by making a $250,000 contribution to her own campaign.

"Incumbent Anita Alvarez, who has come under fire for her handling of the Laquan McDonald police shooting investigation, will face More and Kim Foxx, a former assistant state’s attorney who was chief of staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

"More is a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP and is an Illinois Gaming Board attorney.

"She contributed $250,000 to her campaign on Friday, according to filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections. That made her what is known as a “self-funding candidate” under the law — and eliminated the cap on donations to any candidates in that race.

"Before Friday, her family — specifically, her husband and mother — had donated a total of $99,000 to the campaign. Once donations by a candidate or their family to a campaign reach $100,000, that candidate becomes “self-funding” under the law, which means donation limits are no longer in effect. Those limits would have been $5,400 for individuals, $10,800 for corporations or unions and $53,900 for political action committees.

"More’s campaign on Friday called the contribution “no big deal.”

"“She’s putting her own skin in the campaign because she clearly wants to show the importance of this race, how important this race is to her and to the voters and residents of this county,” her spokesman John E. Davis said.

"More also was criticized for contributing to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign. In a post on her website this week, she wrote that she now regrets the contribution “not because my political opponents have seized on it, but because Governor Rauner has fallen far short of my expectations.”

"In the post, More called herself a “lifelong, independent-minded Democrat.”

"Earlier this week Foxx received the endorsement of a coalition of African-American elected officials representing city, county and state government. Standing with Foxx were some 20 officials, including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and City Treasurer Kurt Summers.

"“No one will be able to buy this election, no matter how much of their personal wealth they are willing to put in to their campaign,” Foxx spokeswoman Joanna Klonsky said. “Cook County residents will be the ones to decide which candidate is equipped to provide the leadership to bring about the transformation our justice system so urgently needs on March 15.”

"Alvarez’s campaign spokesman said the campaign isn’t on her mind.

"“Anita is not thinking about politics right now. There will be a time for campaigning, but for now, she is focused on doing her job,” Ken Snyder said.

Endorsed CAIR, 2016

Lozano connection

Rudy Lozano, Jr. and Toni Preckwinkle, March 2019.