2007 Chicago Aldermanic Elections:
How SEIU took on America’s most powerful Mayor and won

Introduction
There are few, if any, names in American politics that connote power like the name Daley does in Chicago. From the family’s storied history in presidential politics to the current Mayor’s stunningly high approval ratings, few families can lay claim to a legacy of political dominance like the Daleys can.

Since being elected, Mayor Daley has barely had a credible challenger against him and has had strong Aldermanic allies on the Council ready to do his bidding and rubberstamp the votes he wanted to pass.

All that changed on April 17, 2007, as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) did the unthinkable---they took Mayor Daley on in his own backyard and won.

Battle Lines Get Drawn
“Organized labor has supported Daley for most of his 18 years at City Hall. But the relationship has soured over issues ranging from a protracted contract dispute with unionized city workers to Daley's veto of the big-box ordinance.”
Chicago Tribune, April 16, 2007


When Mayor Daley vetoed a living wage bill that was passed with the help of Alderman (and SEIU ally) Joe Moore, the pressure put on the Aldermen, both by the Mayor and Wal-mart—the company that stood to gain the most from the veto- was too much for many of the Aldermen to withstand and the Mayor’s veto was upheld.

Given the mayor’s massively high approval ratings and the lack of a credible challenger against him, we knew that the only way to force real change in Chicago was to change the Council.

SEIU, which represents more than 138,000 working people in Chicago, decided to actively target Aldermen who switched their vote on the big-box ordinance and instead back a slate of candidates who pledged to support living wages, affordable housing and strong public schools.

From candidate recruitment to assembling a team of professionals to overseeing a massive paid communications and voter contact plan, SEIU literally moved mountains to win.

The first task was to expand the playing field and define the terms of the debate.

The Team and the Process
Led by Tom Balanoff, Jerry Morrison and Genie Kastrup, SEIU Chicago assembled a team to lead their efforts. General Consultants Eric Adelstein and Ann Liston of Adelstein/Liston Media were responsible for electronic media and the overall coordination of the entire media campaign. Jill Normington of Bennett, Petts and Normington was responsible for the polling. Mission Control, led by partners Ed Peavy and Adnaan Muslim, was brought in to handle the mail strategy and execution. Doug Scofield and Billy Weinberg conducted much of the member communication and assisted in the training of candidates and the overall press strategy. Graggert Research handled all research and ensured the accuracy of all communications.

We knew we would be challenging the Mayor’s allies in some districts. In others, we needed the data to show us if the incumbents were vulnerable and how to capitalize on that weakness.

We initially polled in seven wards (six incumbents and one open seat) and, given the lack of coordination laws in Chicago, had access to polling in three others (two incumbents and one open seat). Our research found that while the Mayor was overwhelmingly popular, the Council was not. Polling showed nearly every targeted Alderman to be vulnerable to a clear change message.

It bears mentioning that, prior to this, SEIU held trainings and analyzed and recruited candidates. The Mayor and his allies did all they could to force various challengers out of the race, but the work done by the union in anticipation of this ensured that we would have serious challengers in every competitive district. This is one of many examples of SEIU out-hustling, outthinking and outworking the Daley team. Our task required individual strategies for each ward and unique and creative advertising to drive home our message. Last, but certainly not least, we needed an intensive ground game that capitalized on the strength of our members and made sure they not only voted, but helped bring out other supporters to the polls. Knowing that every 100 votes was worth at least one percentage point, SEIU also polled the Change to Win coalition members to determine if specific messages could be used to motivate union members to vote in these traditionally low turnout elections.

We knew that some wards would get full mail plans, while others would get less. We had to make early calculations as to which wards warranted the full efforts that would be required to win the seats, and in which wards we would expend some resources to put the Mayor and his allies on the defensive, force them to spend resources in places other than our key battleground wards, and ensure that the incumbents we knew would probably survive would remember us the next time our issues came up to vote.

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