Preckwinkle's campaign manager takes post with Cook Dems

In a move to unify the Democratic Party locally, Scott Cisek, who headed Toni Preckwinkle's successful campaign in the Democratic primary for county board president, is leaving her camp to become political director of the Cook County Democratic Party.

In a blog post on the party's Web site, Cisek said he was leaving with Preckwinkle's encouragement in order to work to get all of the Democratic nominees elected in November.

Preckwinkle is of the party's progressive wing, but has exchanged endorsements with Joseph Berrios, chairman of the county Democratic Party and nominee in the assessor's race.

Berrios recently clashed with retiring Assessor James Houlihan on whether second-installment property-tax bills will be delivered before the election, and he now faces an independent challenge in the assessor's race from Commissioner Forrest Claypool, a Chicago progressive Democrat.

Yet while U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley and Jesse Jackson Jr. aligned themselves with Claypool, Preckwinkle did not.

Cisek said he feared that a divide in the Democratic Party would lead to "a perfect storm" and a loss of the governor's race and the U.S. Senate seat in the fall.

Cisek is a 1997 Eastern Illinois graduate and has served as a field director and a political worker on a number of campaigns over the last several years.