Tom Tresser, No Games Chicago Founder, Plans Cook County Board President Run

The man who helped thwart President Obama, Mayor Daley and the rest of Chicago's powerful Olympics proponents is setting his sights on a potentially tougher challenge.

Tom Tresser, one of the founders of No Games Chicago , which galvanized local opposition to the 2016 Olympic bid, sent a coy press release trumpeting his plans to run "for a major local office." Though Tresser will formally announce the office he's seeking Saturday, Crain's political columnist Greg Hinz got the answer Friday: Cook County Board President.

Tresser told Hinz he's already raised $1,000 toward his run and sees an opening with a crowded Democratic primary field and the embattled incumbent, Todd Stroger, failing to win his party's endorsement for re-election.

"Isn't it time to have a truly independent government that provides value for your value?" Tresser said.

Tresser, 57, is an instructor at DePaul University with a long history of local activism (read his first-person accounts of the No Games Chicago efforts on his Huffington Post blogs ).