A new Tulchin Research poll conducted February 6-10, 2019 finds Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle continues to lead a crowded field of candidates for Mayor of Chicago. Preckwinkle is well positioned to make the runoff election, as she currently runs ten points ahead of her closest challenger, and she leads both Bill Daley and Susana Mendoza in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups. […]
Toni Preckwinkle currently runs first among the field of mayoral candidates, attracting support from 21 percent of voters. Clustered together and statistically tied for second place are Willie Wilson (11%), Bill Daley (10%), Susana Mendoza (10%), Lori Lightfoot (9%), and Amara Enyia (8%) and 13 percent of voters remain undecided.
The largest number of undecideds are black voters (24 percent) and Hispanic voters (22 percent). The margin of error is plus-or-minus 4 percent. […]
Crime and drugs were listed by 21 percent of voters [as an issue important in determining their vote]; economy and jobs were listed by 19 percent; public corruption was listed by 11 percent, as was schools; and high taxes came in at 10 percent. […]
Nearly six out of 10 voters said the city is on the wrong track, again with more women than men disenchanted.
* Meanwhile, from last night…
The union and fund are not supporting any of the other 13 candidates in the race, just making clear that they support "anybody but Daley." The engineers backed Gery Chico in 2011 and Rahm Emanuel in 2015.
* So, despite the following article being labeled as a “scoop” this morning, it’s not. However, it does have some good info…
The attack ad focuses on Daley’s career as a banker. A voice says: “As president of SBC, Daley took a million-dollar bonus and then laid off 5,000 workers. Then as the chairman of a Wall Street bank, Daley took more than $15 million—the same year his bank admitted to illegally overcharging thousands of active duty troops and driving military families into foreclosure, forcing them out of their homes. Bill Daley—a Wall Street banker who got rich off working people.”
Fight Back Fund is connected to the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150—they share the same address and James Sweeney, the head of Local 150, is an officer with the PAC. The ad buy was made through Left Hook Communications, a left-leaning political strategy firm.
During the 2018 midterms, Fight Back played a huge role in funding conservative former state Sen. Sam McCann’s campaign for governor. McCann ultimately pulled votes away from Republican incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner. Before that, the same independent expenditure PAC spent big money to oppose attorney general candidates Pat Quinn and Scott Drury (both Democrats) and Erika Harold (a Republican).
Other trade unions are helping fund the PAC, according to a source familiar with the organization. It appears Local 150 isn’t supporting any one candidate for mayor, but it knows which one it doesn’t want to win—that would be Daley.
