* As I told you before, Brian Hopkins is a friend of mine going back to our college days. We were actually roommates for a while. Brian won his 2nd Ward aldermanic race yesterday by a wide 56-44 margin.

Hopkins has always wanted to be in public service. He’s also an entrepreneur at heart (he’s owned a couple of restaurants), so that, in my opinion, gives him a good life balance.

Brian served as the executive director of the Illinois Coalition to End Homelessness and eventually went on to win the presidency of the highly influential Chicago community group SOAR, Streeterville Organization of Active Residents. He has both a sound philosophical grounding and an eagerness and ability to solve problems for his people.

But the political game is a lot about luck. Are you in the right district, in the right year, against the right opponent? Heck, people sometimes wait decades for an opportunity to present itself. Sometimes, it never does. Hopkins patiently bided his time, and when the new ward boundaries were drawn, he recognized the opportunity and carefully pieced together a battle plan and a core team, including a very capable fundraiser, Mia Phifer, who proved invaluable down the stretch when Hopkins’ opponent Alyx Pattison was raking in large union contributions.

* One of the issues that Pattison used against Hopkins was the involvement of Victor Reyes and Mike Noonan in Hopkins’ campaign. Hopkins’ benchmark polling, I’m told, showed that it wouldn’t move more than a handful of voters. Hopkins did retaliate, though, by dredging up the imprisonment of Congresscritter Jan Schakowsky’s husband Bob Creamer in a mailer. Schakowsky was one of Pattison’s most prominent backers. It was basically just a little “love tap” to show they were paying attention.

Pattison’s attacks actually backfired because, as the earlier polling had showed, voters didn’t care. Reyes was “Public Enemy Number One” for years among a certain crowd, but he hasn’t been in the news for ages. The attacks energized Reyes and Noonan, who ended up leaving nothing on the field. They put everything they physically had into that race.

* Reyes called me last night to sing the praises of two people. The first was 42nd Ward Ald. Brendan Reilly, an old friend of mine whom I endorsed during his first aldermanic race in my Sun-Times column.

Reyes said he’d run a lot of aldermanic races in his day, but he’d never seen any alderman work as hard to elect somebody else to the city council as Reilly did. Indeed, Ald. Reilly was an early Hopkins backer and pumped in a ton of money ($75K). The guy was absolutely relentless. He wrote the direct mail and produced the TV ads (something he did when he was on House Speaker Madigan’s staff).

Reilly also supplied Hopkins with a campaign manager, Matt Cain. Reilly and Cain were all-in. And not to take anything away from Hopkins, but there would probably not have been such a victory last night without those two very skilled men.

* Reyes said another hero was Kevin Fanning. You may remember Kevin because he was my intern several years ago.

After Kevin got his master’s degree from UIUC, he signed on with Reyes and Noonan. I had some trepidation about that. The Reyes stuff was still kinda fresh. I also wanted him to keep his promise to me that he’d go to law school. But I also knew that most of the attacks on Reyes were just plain goofy (and despite all the confident predictions from his detractors, Reyes emerged without a legal mark on him). And Kevin wanted to do it, so whatever. It’s his life, and he swore to me that he’d complete his law degree. Kevin ran the Jeffrey Tobolski campaign on behalf of Reyes and Noonan against Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, who most thought couldn’t be beat. As you may recall, Peraica lost and ended up being convicted for damaging a Tobolski campaign sign.

* Commissioner Tobolski hired Kevin after the campaign and it turned out that Brian Hopkins’ office was right next door. Brian was Cook County Commissioner John Daley’s chief of staff back then. So, I reached out to Hopkins and asked him if he’d please keep an eye out for my former intern. He went far beyond that, however, and became Kevin’s mentor. And when Brian left Commissioner Daley’s office to run for alderman, he recommended Kevin for the job.

Kevin was Hopkins’ original campaign treasurer, and he pushed hard to convince Reyes and Noonan to bring their considerable field operation to the Hopkins race. He eventually took a brief leave of absence from his county gig to work for Hopkins and helped finish the campaign, keeping the candidate motivated and focused on the specific tasks at hand 24/7.

Last week, Kevin was notified that he’d passed his state bar exam. This week, one of his most important mentors was elected to the Chicago City Council. Not a bad few days, if you ask me.

* I’ve known Mike Noonan since former state Rep. Clem Balanoff brought him to Springfield many, many moons ago. He rose through the House Democratic staff ranks and became a star.

Brendan Reilly was also on staff back then, and the two developed a strong rivalry. They seemed at times to be brothers fighting to be the favorite Madigan son. They were constantly griping about each other, while doing their best to outwork and out-succeed the other guy. It worked out great for Madigan, but some very hard feelings built up over the years.

Because of that, the two never worked together after they left the House, until the Hopkins race. From what I gathered, they worked quite well together and reestablished their old friendship. Both Reilly and Noonan sent me this photo of the two of them at the Hopkins victory party last night…

I don’t know if they’ll ever work together again, but if they do, watch out.

       

26 Comments - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 1:52 pm: ===I don’t know if they’ll ever work together again, but if they do, watch out.=== There is something really special to being part of a Crew, and it’s an absolute treat to get a chance to work together again, especially… after water and bridges and time make things softer, better, and wiser. Good on them. Even sweeter when you win, much, much sweeter. - ZC - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:02 pm: A formidable team. I will put in one brief plug for a guy who could have a future in Chicago politics if he sticks with it, John DiFrancesco from Team Alyx; whatever happened on that race, I know John absolutely worked his arse off for Alyx. She just needed more people like him. Somebody in Chicago politics ought to draft him into their league, he’s talented and hungry. - Amalia - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:05 pm: Congrats to them! wondering about staff and consultants on other aldermanic races. - Boone's is Back - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:07 pm: Congrats to Brian Hopkins and the great team that he had. Nice to see the band getting back together. - Midway Gardens - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:13 pm: I live in the 2nd ward. Lots of postcard mailings from both sides. But Alderman Reilly’s endorsement letter was well thought out and helped me make up my mind on the race. The 2nd Ward boundaries are a mess. It’s going to be difficult to be involved everywhere with a ward that is a couple of blocks here and there over miles. - Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:17 pm: Congratulations to Hopkins and his team, including John Geahan. - Gooner - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:25 pm: One more person deserves a mention — Brian’s mom. There are a lot of people who are no longer young who still referred to her as “Mrs. Hopkins.” She was definitely our elder. She worked her behind off. She spent most of the two election days outside, in a precinct just off the lake. Our our rounds of the precincts, we kept asking her to go inside for a while but she rarely did. Around 4:00, the people that I was with convinced her to warm up in my car for a while, while I went in to check on the polling place. Heated seats got her to take a seat for a few minutes, but as soon as I got back, she was out there again talking to voters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a proud parent. It was really wonderful seeing her do the work to help her son win. - 29th ward lawyer - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:48 pm: Technically Peraica was not “convicted” of anything. He was found guilty, received supervision and successfully completed it, so it does not count as a “conviction” under Illinois law - Kevin Fanning - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 2:54 pm: Congrats to Brian, he earned it. It was great watching Alderman Reilly, and my former boss, Mike Noonan, in action. Truly a lesson in old-fashioned political retail and new school technology. Also a shout out to Matt Cain. The guy is a workhorse and really took the bull by the horns. Rich thank you for the kind words. As much as Brian has taught me you’ll always be my mentor though! What did you say? Once you’re part of the outfit you can never leave? - Pepe - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:01 pm: Amateur move to go after Noonan and Reyes; it’s been tried before without success. Didn’t they do their homework? Noonan is about the best in the business when it comes to political strategy, and they have provided numerous candidates with assistance and advice throughout the years. I bet the Pattison campaign lost at least a few potential allies with that move. - Urban Girl - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:11 pm: Nice story. It sounds like a campaign run by adults that appealed to adults - a good model for all. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 3:14 pm: ===Once you’re part of the outfit you can never leave? === “Now youse can’t leave.” - Load and A Half - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:04 pm: Aw,that is sweet. Glad all is well in Hackville today. - Ogden & Fry - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:17 pm: http://www.ogdenfry.com/polls/Runoff2.pdf - siriusly - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:37 pm: Alderman Reilly stands behind his friends, he is a solid guy. That picture makes me laugh. Maybe this is a good time for Jan Schakowsky to think about protecting herself and stop going after others. Maybe she should not play outside of the 9th. Her brand is not worth much in many places. How silly to think that that a hit piece on a loud mouthed political consultant will move numbers. A waste of money. - siriusly - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:39 pm: I mean loud mouthed in a good way of course. A badge of honor. - Gooner - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:41 pm: “How silly to think that that a hit piece on a loud mouthed political consultant will move numbers.” I don’t know if there were any follow ups, but the one piece was even worse than that. If I recall, it did not even name any names. Pretty much all it said was “Brian hired some bad people.” I remember at the time having no idea who the ad was referencing. It was an absolutely terrible piece. - Amalia - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 4:48 pm: so along with the review of consultants, mail and ad flacks that I so deeply desire (part of why this piece is great, Rich), there should be some tally sheet for the pols and endorsements. How many races did Aunt Toni “lose” this round? and Durbin? Jan? Berrios? - Bluecollargal - Wednesday, Apr 8, 15 @ 8:09 pm: Made GOTV calls for Brendan’s first race. Remember his pluses were impeccable. Could tell work was real. He knows his turf. - 21st State - Thursday, Apr 9, 15 @ 1:10 am: golly — I hope my law students read this particular thread for I am absolutely into tears as a cancer survivor able to witness all of this — huzzah indeed thank you all for your service - Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 9, 15 @ 8:01 am: Sounds like Reyes, Noonan and Reilly are good political operatives, but to what end? Rich, you didn’t say a word about how they would deal with the grinding problem of poverty in the neighborhoods, the rampant inequality in the city,the squeeze on the middle class, nor the lack of affordable housing. Do they have ideas of how to deal with these, or just a plan to win? If the latter, they have earned their pay, but not your plaudits - 19th Warder - Thursday, Apr 9, 15 @ 9:09 am: 29th ward lawyer - please explain the difference from being found guilty and not being convicted? The bottom line he lost his office because of all the enemies he made and he ran against a far better person and candidate - Mark - Thursday, Apr 9, 15 @ 11:24 am: they did great work up there…knowing and loving both Scoop and Noonan as I do-it was great seeing them work together-like you said rich if they do it again definitely watch out! - Rob - Thursday, Apr 9, 15 @ 12:04 pm: Shout out to Mark and his fine work in the 11th ward, too! - Second Warder - Thursday, Apr 9, 15 @ 1:40 pm: Really well said Rich. I got to see this one from the front lines as a resident of the new 2nd Ward Peninsula. This was a particularly fun race to watch, as both candidates were extremely qualified, had a myriad of solid endorsements, and significant cash on hand. Just wanted to echo a comment from Rich, it seemed Pattison was gaining significant momentum in closing the gap after the primary. Reilly, Cain, and Roosevelt Group came in and absolutely closed this one. Rather than listing 40 endorsements on every mailpiece and hoping something stuck, you saw targeted mail and palm card walkers go out to each precinct and hit home a message that would play to the wildly diverse constituency that runs through this ward map. The negative pieces were creative without being inflammatory. It will be interesting to see where this team regroups, because as you said, I’m not sure if Hopkins would have escaped with a win without them, let alone a double digit victory. - Waiting . . . - Thursday, Apr 9, 15 @ 2:12 pm: I was a donor to Alyx because of the big push made by Congresswoman Schakowsky. I know that losing cannot be easy. It is day two after the election, and I am still waiting for the “thanks for the help, it made a difference” group e-mail. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.