Clement Balanoff, Jr. is an American politician and the national political director for the

Amalgamated Transit Union The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor organization in the United States and Canada that represents employees in the public transit industry. Established in 1892 as the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees of America, the u ...

. He served as a Democratic member of the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representativ ...

from 1989 to 1995.

Biography

He was born April 16, 1953, in Chicago to a politically active family. His father Clem Balanoff, Sr. was a prominent union organizer and his mother Miriam Balanoff would become a circuit court judge. In 1981, Clem moved to California for five years, where he worked as an aide for Congressman Matthew Martínez and later Congressman Esteban Torres. He returned to Illinois to take a job as the 10th Ward Superintendent, responsible for garbage pickup and other city services. A year later when Ed Vrdolyak defected to the Republican Party, Balanoff became the Democratic Committeeman for the 10th ward. In 1988, he defeated incumbent Sam Panayotovich, who had defected to the Republican Party with Vrdolyak. In 1991, he ran for Alderman in a field of ten opponents losing to John Buchanan, who previously served in the role in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1994, he was one of five candidates who ran in the Democratic primary to succeed retiring incumbent George Sangmeister. Frank Giglio, a fellow member of the Illinois House, won the Democratic primary. Frank Giglio was defeated in the general election by Jerry Weller. In 1996, Balanoff was Weller's opponent losing by a three percentage point margin. He explored a rematch in 1998, but chose to run for a seat on the

Cook County Board of Review The Cook County Board of Review is an independent office created by statute by the Illinois General Assembly and is governed by three commissioners who are elected by district for two- or four-year terms. Cook County, which includes Chicago, is the ...

instead before dropping out prior to the primary. His post-electoral career has included stints as Chief of Staff to the Cook County Clerk, a strategist for the mayoral campaign of

Chuy García Jesús G. "Chuy" García ( ; born April 12, 1956) is an American politician serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Illinois's Illinois's 4th congressional district, 4th district since 2019. A member of the ...

and Illinois state director for the

presidential campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

of Vermont Senator

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

. At the

2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the maj ...

Balanoff read the vote totals for Senator Sanders' Illinois campaign. As of August 2017, Balanoff is the executive director for the Illinois chapter of

Our Revolution Our Revolution (sometimes known by its initials OR) is an American progressive political action organization founded as a continuation of Senator Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign. The organization's mission is to educate voters a ...

; a pro-Sanders organization. Balanoff served as the co-chair of Ameya Pawar's campaign for Chicago City Treasurer in the 2019 municipal election and served as the campaign manager of Abdelnasser Rashid's unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Cook County Board of Review's 1st district. As of 2020, Balanoff is the national political director of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balanoff, Clem 1953 births Living people Politicians from Chicago Ripon College (Wisconsin) alumni Democratic Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives Amalgamated Transit Union people 20th-century members of the Illinois General Assembly