In 1987 (at the age 29), Eisendrath successfully ran to succeed the retiring
Martin J. Oberman as alderman (city councilor) in Chicago's 43rd ward. The race between him and attorney Robert Perkins was dubbed by observers as the "Battle of the Blue Bloods", as both young candidates came from wealthy and well-connected families. Eisendrath raised $225,000 for her campaign, and his campaign spent what was at the time an all-time record amount for a Chicago City Council campaign. As a candidate, Eisendrath's platform focused on city finances and school reform. He promised that he would be neutral in the
Chicago Council Wars, not joining either of the council's warring political factions. He was described by the
Chicago Tribune as positioning himself to be a "
Lakefront independent". He was re-elected
in 1991. Eisendrath backed the
Chicago School Reform Act, legislation enacted by the state of Illinois in 1988 to reform
Chicago Public Schools. Among the changes that it made was removing
academic tenure from
principals, and creating
Local School Councils to which principals had to answer. Eisendrath endorsed the ward
redistricting map proposed by Mayor
Richard M. Daley when it was put to a public vote via a 1992
referendum. The referendum offered Chicagoans the unusual opportunity to provide input in the redistricting, allowing them to vote between two options. Rather than providing voters a visual representation of each of the two options, the phrasing of the question on the ballot provided voters with a list of the aldermen that supported each respective map. Eisendrath supported the option preferred by Mayor Daley.
1990 congressional campaign Eisendrath ran in the
1990 Democratic primary election for the
U.S. House of Representatives in
Illinois's 9th congressional district, challenging longtime incumbent
Sid Yates. Eisendrath ran an anti-incumbent campaign focused on the decades-long length of Yates' tenure. Eisendrath lost in a
landslide. ==Subsequent career in government, politics, and education==