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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Jeff Smith |
| Address |
Evanston, Illinois , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | COSDem |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Jan 13, 2017 10:22pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Jeff Smith is a community leader and activist with a history of political independence and a well-known passion for progressive issues. A Chicago native who graduated from Maine South High School and Northwestern University, Jeff returned to the Evanston-Rogers Park area after earning a law degree at Harvard Law School, and has practiced in both the public and private sector. Jeff and his wife Nancy have been parents, taxpayers, and homeowners in Evanston-Rogers Park for the past 25 years, and their children graduated from the Evanston public schools.
Progressive, independent leadership
Jeff has a long history of proven commitment to progressive civic reform. First involved as a volunteer for Ab Mikva and the Carter-Mondale ticket in Mikva’s legendary whisper-thin win over Sam Young in 1976, Jeff has since worked for countless causes and candidates in Illinois and other states. Jeff’s early leadership included roles as the campaign manager for the first president of the Citizens Utility Board, the Illinois state coordinator for George McGovern in Sen. McGovern’s 1984 “elder statesman” presidential campaign, an area chair for Paul Simon’s U.S. Senate campaign, and 49th Ward co-coordinator for Chicago mayor Harold Washington’s re-election.
Jeff has a track record of challenging Democratic politics to become more issue-oriented, transparent, and inclusive, with special attention to the environment, peace and justice, and political reform. In 1986, at age 29, Jeff successfully challenged the incumbent chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, and served for 4 years as Democratic State Central Committeeman for the 9th Congressional District, then represented by Sid Yates. The Illinois Democratic party, under the late Chairman Vince Demuzio, helped rebuild the downstate and suburban organization, and Illinois swung back into the Democratic column in 1992.
In 1988, while committeeman, Jeff received almost a quarter-million Cook County votes as the reform candidate in a close special election for the Board of Tax Appeals, receiving strong support from north suburban, lakefront, and majority-black wards and townships, as well as many media, labor, good-government, and progressive-advocacy endorsements. Following his term as state committeeman, Jeff remained active in Democratic politics, serving as a ward chair and board member of the Democratic Party of Evanston, and running against machine politics as Evanston’s standard-bearer in a three-way race for the Cook County Board in 1994.
Most recently, Jeff was an early supporter of Barack Obama, supporting him in his 2004 race for the Senate, and working as an election day attorney and/or simple volunteer in Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri in 2008. Jeff was an early supporter of Mike Quigley’s recent successful bid as a reform candidate for the special election in Illinois’s 5th Congressional District.
Beyond partisan politics
While historically supportive of Democrats, Jeff has devoted significant time to non-partisan causes and campaigns, serving on the boards of the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO), SANE/Freeze (which later became Peace Action), and the Sierra Club Chicago Group. He assisted the successful campaign of Evanston Mayor Lorraine Morton in 2005. In the 2007 municipal elections, Jeff was on the steering committee of a citizens’ referendum campaign in Evanston that received over 83% of the vote, and advised Chicago 49th Ward alderman Joe Moore in his extremely close re-election. In the 2009 Evanston elections, Jeff helped frame some of the issues, meeting individually with many municipal candidates and moderating two of the more well-attended candidate forums.
Politics has never been Jeff’s whole life, and he has volunteered thousands of hours to school and youth groups, and causes from affordable housing to plant habitat restoration. A grassroots organizer with an unabashed populist streak, Jeff Smith currently serves as the president of the Central Street Neighbors Association, helping it grow to become one of the larger, more well-respected community organizations in Evanston, where Jeff has been an outspoken advocate for sustainability, and for government accountability to voters and residents.
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