Hillary Clinton lines up heavy hitters for Illinois delegate slate

Source: Chicago.suntimes



News
Hillary Clinton lines up heavy hitters for Illinois delegate slate

Written By Lynn Sweet Posted: 11/22/2015, 08:15pm




WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is running Illinois delegate slates packed with some of the best-connected political figures in the state the Sun-Times has learned.

Clinton, born in Chicago and raised in Park Ridge, is also sending in waves of top operatives to Illinois to build a robust campaign infrastructure in advance of the March primary and to maintain an engaged donor base.

The Illinois Clinton camp has filled the 102 slots allocated to the 18 congressional districts under Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Illinois formulas requiring gender equity and diversity............



The slate is balanced to reflect all races, sexual orientations, the young and people with disabilities – mandates that are not a part of the GOP delegate rules.

In Illinois, the delegate selection process was led by two diehard Clinton allies, Kevin Conlon, the president of Conlon & Dunn Public Strategies, and attorney Kevin O’Keefe.................................

Clinton Illinois had an unusual approach to recruiting delegates, which included an application process — and some 500 applied, Conlon said. The folks running to be pledged Clinton delegates to the DNC convention in Philadelphia next summer “will become the face of the campaign” in Illinois, Conlon said.

......................An Associated Press survey of 17 of the state’s 26 superdelegates found 13 pledged to Clinton.................


Relationships matter. In the north suburban 9th congressional district, one of Clinton’s best friends, Voda “Betsy” Ebeling, of Arlington Heights, is running as a Clinton delegate.

A sampling of the Chicago-area Clinton delegate slates shows among the elected officials: .........................
Among activists and operatives are Lauren Beth Gash, Anna Valencia and Rick Garcia.

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The Clinton slate held a telephone conference call with Attorney General Lisa Madigan last Friday and Sen. Dick Durbin will be on the next one.

As for rallying the troops in Illinois, the Brooklyn-based Clinton campaign dispatched communications advisor Karen Finney to Chicago last week for rounds of meetings. On Monday, ....................

Former President Bill Clinton returns to Chicago on Dec. 11 for at least two fundraisers. .........................

Clinton had a paid Illinois finance director, Jeremy Hallahan, in place when she announced earlier this year. Clinton was in Chicago earlier this month .........................where her campaign assembled from around the nation mothers of victims of violence for a round table on criminal justice reform...........................



Read more: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/1123181/hillary-clinton-lines-heavy-hitters-illinois-delegate-slate

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