The two quickly turned to discussing the hottest topic in local politics: their defeat by political novice Anita Alvarez. They agreed it wasn’t the shocker pundits and journalists have been calling it.
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Allen nodded. “And then she got on TV.”
It’s easy to say it after the fact, but they aren’t the only people involved in the state’s attorney campaign offering this analysis. Other insiders are saying that their internal polling—from the beginning of the campaign last fall until its final days—showed that few voters were attached to any of the candidates, and even though people didn’t know who Alvarez was, they liked her name and the fact that she was a woman up against five guys. The other campaigns were hoping that she wouldn’t be able to come up with enough money to raise her profile. But when her husband loaned Alvarez at least $640,000, allowing her to present herself as a prosecutor/mom in TV ads, they knew they were in trouble. “All of a sudden, she had $600,000 and was the 800-pound gorilla,” said one campaign staffer.
CITY
SUBURBS
TOTAL VOTES
FUNDS RAISED
FUNDS / VOTE
Anita Alvarez
137,228
105,238
242,466
$ 736,100.00
$ 3.04
Tom Allen
130,335
102,603
232,938
$ 1,213,135.31
$ 5.21
Larry Suffredin
109,637
99,094
208,731
$ 1,184,413.52
$ 5.67
Howard Brookins Jr.
124,078
46,835
170,913
$ 730,503.29
$ 4.27
Robert Milan
27,311
27,532
54,843
$ 428,551.49
$ 7.81
Tommy Brewer
21,126
10,944
32,070
$ 35,910.00
$ 1.12
