A poll commissioned by Cook County Comm. Mike Quigley shows that, among the less than half of respondents who favor a specific candidate in the 5th Congressional District race, he holds an early lead.  From Greg Hinz's latest column in Crain's:

According to a poll conducted for his campaign by Alabama-based Anzalone Liszt Research, Mr. Quigley leads with 19%, to 11% for Ms. Feigenholtz and 8% for Mr. Fritchey. The remainder (55%) is undecided or scattered elsewhere, with a sampling error of plus or minus 4.4%.

If [Ald. Pat] O'Connor is included in the field, the Quigley margin over Ms. Feigenholtz drops, putting him at 14% to her 10%, with Mr. O'Connor at 8% and Mr. Fritchey at 7%.

Of course, as Hinz goes on to mention, it's not really clear if O'Connor is going to run, considering there's no indication his pal Mayor Daley is going to endorse anyone.

Thanks to the Quigley campaign, we got our hands on the polling memo today.  The survey of 500 likely voters in the district was conducted January 8-13.  In addition to Quigley, Feigenholtz, Fritchey, and O'Connor, they tested support for Justin Oberman (2%), Cary Capparelli (1%), and Jan Donatelli (1%). Meanwhile, Tom Geoghegan, whose candidacy we've been paying close attention to, wasn't included due to the fact he announced only two days before the poll went into the field.

This afternoon, we asked Quigley campaign manager Tom Bowen what he's taking away from the results.  He said the poll proves Quigley's "brand name is already built" and that the other contenders have a steeper hill to climb to raise their profile before March 3.  Indeed, the survey found Quigley with the highest name identification -- 39% -- as opposed to 24% for Feigenholtz and 28% for Fritchey.  

Bowen attributed Quigley's relative popularity to three factors: "He represents more territory than any of the other elected officials in the race, Cook County government is in the news a lot, and" -- because of the Blagojevich scandal -- "reform is much more relevant now than it used to be."

Bowen also acknowledged that, while having a reform-oriented record is an asset, the economy is the top issue for voters (49% in the Quigley poll).

Finally, the survey found that an endorsement from Quigley's fellow commissioner Forest Claypool could go a long way.  He has much higher name ID than anyone else in the race (75%) and is extremely popular (66% fav/9% unfav). Fifty-six percent of respondents said they'd be more likely to vote for a candidate supported by Claypool.

Be sure to read Hinz's full piece, as well as Ben Joravsky's IL-5 article in the current issue of the Reader (not available online yet).  The real test in this race is going to be who among all the Chicago-based candidates will appeal to the voters in the vast, northwest portion of this district.

Come to the 5th Congressional District Democratic candidate forum on Sunday, February 1