Clem Balanoff

Clement "Clem" Balanoff, Jr. is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995. He was born April 16, 1953 in Chicago to a politically active family.^[1] His father Clem Balanoff, Sr. was a prominent union organizer and his mother Miriam Balanoff would become a circuit court judge.^[2] In 1981, Clem moved to California for five years before returning 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.^[3][4]

In 1988, he defeated incumbent Sam Panayotovich, who had defected to the Republican Party with Vrdolyak.^[3] 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 instead before dropping out prior to the primary.^[5]

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 and Illinois state director for the presidential campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.^[6]

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