Tresser jumps in

Lincoln Park-based activist, teacher in the fray for county board prez race

10/21/2009 10:00 PM

By IAN FULLERTON
Contributing Reporter

1 Comment - Add Your Comment


Tom Tresser

Still warm from a victory against the Chicago 2016 bid team, No Games Chicago leader Tom Tresser has declared he is running for Cook County Board President.

“If I have the privilege to be elected to that office, I can promise you a few things: we will have accountability, transparency, creativity and innovation in our government and we will have world class professional service because you, the tax payers, deserve it,” Tresser told a group of just over a dozen supporters who came to hear the announcement Saturday morning at a bar in Greektown.

The run for Todd Stroger’s seat will be a political first for Tresser, 57, who has been at the fore of several civic battles. A civics instructor at DePaul University, Tresser is running on the Green Party ticket.

Tresser recently led the fight against the unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016. Prior to his stint with No Games, he was a co-founder of Protect Our Parks, the group that protested the lease of a Chicago Park District field in Lincoln Park to the Latin School of Chicago.

While these groups rallied as opposition, Tresser said his campaign for board president would be positive.

“I’m for taking back our government and stopping these crazy projects that have been looting our treasury and embarrassing us in front of the world,” he said.

Despite his connections to the group, Tresser insisted that his campaign is not a No Games operation.

“We asked hundreds of people who were No Games supporters what we should do next, and they said get involved in politics,” he said. “I feel like I’m responding to the No Games constituency, but it’s still two separate things.”

Tresser made the decision to run only days before the announcement. His political inexperience, he said, was not a necessarily a shortcoming.

“It’s true that I don’t have any experience giving my cousins jobs and hiring low ball contractors,” he said, “but what I do have experience in is running creative organizations and solving problems with collaborative efforts.”

Given the timing of his announcement, Tresser may have missed out on reformer votes already pegged for nominees such as Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (5th). But Stroger is the one to beat, he said.

“Cook County government is his family business, so he’s got a lot of supporters,” Tresser said.

He hoped to get 2,000 signatures for his nominee petition, which is due Nov. 2.

Although only having first spoken to him a day before the announcement, Illinois Green Party Chair Phil Huckleberry said he had faith in Tresser’s run.

“Given how angry people have been with county government, someone who has a track record of being a recent local hero definitely has a chance,” said Huckleberry.


1 Comment - Add Your Comment



By suzi from uk village
Posted: 11/10/2009 10:36 PM

Thank you for taking on the Stroger "machine". Let's save our money and NOT spend on wasteful projects (Olympics). Thank you!