A Progressive, Independent Leader for the 18th District
Progressive, independent leadership
Jeff has a proven commitment to progressive civic reform. Since first volunteering as a teen for Ab Mikva and the Carter-Mondale ticket in 1976, Jeff has worked for countless causes and candidates in Illinois and other states. Jeff's early leadership included roles as campaign manager for the first president of the Citizens Utility Board, Illinois state coordinator for Sen. George McGovern's 1984 “elder statesman” presidential campaign, 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 worked hard to elect female and minority candidates from the federal to the local level, shouldering campaign roles both large and small.
Jeff has a track record of challenging the Democratic Party to become more issue-oriented, transparent, and inclusive, with special attention to the environment, peace and justice, and political reform. In 1986, Jeff successfully challenged the incumbent chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, and served for 4 years as Democratic committeeman for the 9th Congressional District. The Illinois Democratic party, under the late Chairman Vince Demuzio, helped rebuild downstate and suburban organizations, 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. After his term as committeeman, Jeff served as a ward chair and board member of the Democratic Party of Evanston, and took on machine politics 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 volunteer in Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri in 2008. Jeff also supported Mike Quigley’s recent successful bid as a reform candidate for the special election in Illinois’s 5th Congressional District.
Broad experience in law and policy
Jeff has over 25 years' experience of exposure to a wide array of legal and policy issues. He has worked in both the public and non-profit sector, including work as an attorney with the City of Chicago, and serving seniors and low-income clients with the the Loyola University Community Law Center. For the past 18 years Jeff has been engaged in general civil practice, seeing first-hand how Illinois laws affect individual citizens and businesses, and listening to the experiences of countless residents of the 18th District.
Beyond partisan politics
Jeff has devoted significant time to non-partisan causes and campaigns, serving in the past on the boards of political reform, peace and justice, and environmental groups. He currently serves on the board of an affordable housing organization. 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 in favor of preserving the Civic Center, and he donated time and expertise to two lawsuits defending citizens' election rights. 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.
A balanced life
Law and politics have never been Jeff's whole life. As a dad and citizen, 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 has served since 2007 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. When not analyzing mass transit plans or organizing meetings, Jeff enjoys writing, music, the arts, sports, and the outdoors.
