No Games Chicago leader to run for Cook County president

A top opponent of the failed Chicago 2016 Olympic bid is running for president of the Cook County Board on the Green Party ticket.

Tom Tresser, a lead organizer for No Games Chicago, a grass-roots group that fought the city's Olympic bid, announced he'll enter the race for the position held by Democrat Todd Stroger.

"After almost 30 years of active civic life in this great city, I've come to the conclusion that I'm tired of chasing bad policy and trying to stop projects that rip up parks, loot our treasury and reward the connected few," Tresser said. "I would like to help make good policy and be part of a small and honest government - rather than rail against wrongheaded policy and the litany of public corruption that has become Chicago's and Cook County's unofficial theme song."

Other Democratic candidates are West Side Chicago U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, Hyde Park Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown and Cook County Water Reclamation District President Terry O'Brien. Republicans Roger Keats, a former state senator from Wilmette, and Chicago police officer John Garrido also are running.

Tresser has a background in the city's theatrical and cultural groups and grass-roots organizing, including Protect Our Parks, a group that successfully fought a Chicago Park District attempt to give a Lincoln Park soccer field to the private Latin School in what Tresser labeled a "secret sweetheart deal."

The use of public land and funding in the Chicago 2016 bid also prompted him to lead delegations to International Olympic Committee meetings, including this month's 2016 Summer Games site-selection ceremony in Copenhagen, Denmark, to combat the city's Olympic campaign.

"We need to put a freeze on any program that transfers money or property from the public to the private entity," Tresser said.

He also promised more accountability and transparency in county government and an end to "political stagnation."

"Call it the Machine," he said. "Call it the Combine. Call them the Regulars."

Like Republicans and Democrats, the Green Party will have its primary Feb. 2 before next fall's general election.