A message is only as good as the messenger. And, in five April 5 northwest suburban contests, the message of “change” failed dismally in three, but triumphed in two.

            In Park Ridge and northwest suburban Maine Township, Democrats ran as outsiders, and they were soundly repudiated. Their candidates were flawed, and their “change” message failed to resonate. Ditto in Lincolnwood, where the incumbent party easily kept control. But in both Morton Grove and Harwood Heights, Democrats running on a “change” theme were victorious, beating Republican-tied foes. Here’s a look at those contests:

            Maine Township: Republican ideological divisiveness manifested itself in a bitter Feb. 22 primary, from which incumbent Supervisor Bob Dudycz, a strong conservative, emerged with a 22-vote victory -- and then only after a three-week discovery recount. Complacent Democrats joyfully presumed that the Republican losers would bolt to their slate, headed by Karen Dimond; as a result, they ran a passive and nearly invisible campaign. “The dumbest campaign strategy I’ve ever witnessed,” observed one longtime Republican official.

Instead, the much-awaited bolt by backers of Mark Thompson, Dudycz’s more liberal foe, never occurred. The battle-hardened Dudycz organization returned to the precincts with a vengeance, knowing that this was a do-or-die battle. And the result was a blow-out: Dudycz got 9,751 votes (58.2 percent), to Dimond’s 6,982. Republican candidates for other township offices, including clerk, assessor, collector, highway commissioner, and for three of four trustee positions, also swept to victory.             Dudycz’s vote was actually higher than that which he received in 2001 (9,545). And Dimond’s showing was worse than that of the Democratic supervisor candidate in 2001 (7,075), 1997 (12,582), 1993 (9,931) and 1989 (12,746). In fact, Democratic support in township races appears to be on a downward trajectory.

            Dimond’s strategy of waiting for the Republicans to self-destruct was compounded by another glaring tactical error: Her lack of involvement in the Park Ridge mayor’s race, featuring a titanic struggle between Republican Howard Frimark and Democrat Mike Tinaglia, both of whom were running as “independents.”

Dudycz and Frimark closely integrated their campaigns, sharing information as to voter preferences, jointly distributing campaign literature, and running a joint election day get-out-the-vote effort. Their workers canvassed Park Ridge, beginning in January, getting so-called plusses (voters for) and minuses (voters against). The presumption was that the more conservative Dudycz voters were definite Frimark voters, while Frimark voters, with a bit of persuasion, would be Dudycz voters. The campaigns shared this information.

On April 5, Frimark rolled to a comfortable 4,889-3,224 victory over Timaglia, amassing 60.2 percent of the vote; in the supervisor’s race, Dudycz topped Dimond in Park Ridge by 4,228-2,158 (66.5 percent). Dimond ran almost 1,100 votes behind Tinaglia.

“I’d welcome his (Tinaglia’s) support,” said Dimond before the election. But she made no effort to get it, or to integrate her campaign with his. And Tinaglia had more than enough problems, so he ignored her.

Dudycz has promised not to run against Thompson for Republican township committeeman in 2006, but he might back somebody else. Voters did not want change in 2005, and that outcome has indisputably made Dudycz the most powerful Republican officeholder in Maine Township.

Park Ridge: It takes a scorecard to keep track of the political players in that town, and their loyalties. In the low-turnout 2003 aldermanic elections, Democratic-aligned “independents” won five of six contested races. The only Republican-aligned winner was Frimark, on the Homeowners Party slate. That gave the Independent Five a solid minority among the 14 aldermen. Shortly thereafter, the Five became Seven, as aldermen Tinaglia and Larry Freel joined them; incumbent Republican Mayor Ron Wietecha then resigned, and the Independent Seven backed an eighth, Mike MaRous, to be interim mayor.

The stage was seemingly set for a triumphal Democratic takeover in 2005. Tinaglia was the anointed mayoral candidate, and was backed by MaRous and six aldermen. The organizations of U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-9) and Norwood Park Township Democratic Committeeman Robert Martwick were poised to send in precinct workers. The Homeowners Party had collapsed, as every alderman elected on that slate in 2001 refused to seek re-election in 2005. Frimark couldn’t even field a credible slate of aldermanic candidates, whereas Tinaglia had allies running in six of seven wards.

But then, to Frimark’s rescue, came…Tinaglia. Proving that a message is only as good as the messenger, a gigantic skeleton tumbled out of Tinaglia’s closet. Tinaglia, an attorney, had been sanctioned by a federal judge for his “failure to be truthful and candid,” and fined $185,143; that sanction was upheld on appeal in 2000.

Tinaglia’s strategy was to ignore the issue. When the local newspapers ran detailed stories, he was quoted as saying that he “would do it again,” and was just “zealously defending” his client. When the newspapers sought follow ups, he shut up, and would make no further comment. But “bunker mentality” paranoia had set in, and Tinaglia whined about “negative campaigning.” Tinaglia’s first mailing didn’t go out until mid-March; his precinct operation was sporadic, often consisting of high-school students; and the whiff of being a loser was in the air. But then Frimark delivered the coup de grace: a citywide mailing the last weekend which asked “What is Mike Tinaglia hiding?” The flyer rehashed his sanction, and his refusal to talk to the local press, and slammed his “record of lies and deception.”

The result was predictable: Frimark won all seven Park Ridge wards, even the Democratic 6th and 7th wards south of Devon to Higgins, as well as the 1st Ward (around the Park Ridge Country Club), where Tinaglia retired as alderman. There, the Frimark-backed candidate, underdog Kirke Machon, beat Tinaglia’s hand-picked candidate, John Iberl, by a 61-39 percent margin. In the 5th Ward, Frimark’s candidate, Joe Baldi, crushed Bruce Gilpin, a liberal Democrat who ran the local Barack Obama campaign in 2004, by 65-35 percent. In the 6th Ward, another Democrat, Mary Wynn Ryan, won by just five votes.

In the new council, the anti-Frimark contingent will number at least eight, and could make his life miserable. But Frimark goes into his first term with political momentum and a huge psychological advantage. If the Democratic majority obstructs him, he can blame his lack of accomplishment on them, and target their aldermanic seats in 2007; and if they co-operate, they lose their raison d’etre.

Had Freel rather than the flawed Tinaglia been the candidate, the outcome would have been much closer. But Frimark’s 1,665-vote triumph clearly signals the beginning of the end of the Democratic resurgence in Park Ridge.

Harwood Heights: A Chicago ward contains 66,000 people, and at least 60 precincts. But even given that size, incumbent aldermen rarely lose. Harwood Heights contains 8,297 people, in ten precincts. Yet the incumbent mayor, Republican Norb Pabich, in a turnout of just 1,969, lost by 38 votes. How is that possible?  All he needed was 100 votes per precinct.

The winner was Democrat Peggy Fuller, a village trustee, who got 895 votes (45 percent), to Pabich’s 857 (43 percent), and Joe Scott’s 217. Neither Fuller nor Pabich were flawed, nor was either particularly popular. Much like Park Ridge, Harwood Heights has been the scene of personal and political bickering over the past two years, with Fuller and her Gang of Four trustees undercutting Pabich’s power and prerogatives at every opportunity. Fuller tagged Pabich as “inept,” while Pabich ripped Fuller as “arrogant and obsessed with power.” Scott tried to run as the Neither of the Above candidate, but the battle lines were drawn, and he was irrelevant.

Pabich brought in a lot of outside workers. But the critical component in Fuller’s triumph was the work of Trustee Mark Dobrzycki, a Fuller ally who focused his efforts on turning out Polish-American voters. According to recent census statistics, over 40 percent of the village’s residents are first- and second-generation Poles. “We worked hard,” said Dobrzycki.

Also elected on Fuller’s slate were trustee candidates Les Szlendak and Jimmy Mougolias. Their victories will give Fuller a 5-1 majority among the trustees. The only pro-Pabich winner was veteran Trustee Arlene Jezierny, who is already being touted as a mayoral contender in 2009. But this much is clear: Turnout was 1,969 in 2005, up only slightly from 1,927 in 2001. With Fuller in complete charge, there won’t be much controversy in the foreseeable future.

Morton Grove: The regime has changed, but it’s difficult to quantify from what to whom. The Action Party has controlled that mayoralty and village government since 1977, and the last three mayors have been Democrats with varying ties to Niles Township Democratic Committeeman Cal Sutker. But, for 2005, the Action Party’s mayoral candidate was a Republican, Trustee Dan Staackmann, and his foe, the Caucus Party’s Rick Krier, was a Democrat with very close ties to Sutker, whose Caucus Party controls Skokie and the township.

Proclaiming himself the “agent of change,” Krier scored a solid win, beating Staackmann 2,435-1,955, getting 55 percent of the vote. And therein lies a certain irony – namely: That Krier, while admittedly a new face, is nevertheless a perpetuation of Democratic control of Morton Grove. And that the Republicans, rather than run under a new party label, took over the Action Party at the precise time when voters were inclined to want a change. Caucus Party candidates won for clerk and three trustees, giving Krier a 4-2 majority on the village board.

“They (the Action Party) were split,” acknowledged Krier, who was the subject of a negative campaign, attacking him as a Sutker stooge and a “county payroller,” and hitting his ties to the county forest preserve district. “Had they picked (Trustee) Jim Karp, he could have won,” said Krier. “But a lot of Action Party people came over to me.”

Lincolnwood: The Lull continues. The Alliance Party, successor of the Administration Party, which has governed Lincolnwood continuously since 1931, is still in fine form. After eight tumultuous years (1985-93), the village is back to normalcy. Incumbent Mayor Peter Moy retired, and the election for the succession was a mere formality: Trustee Jerry Turry, the Alliance candidate, promised continuity; his opponent, former clerk Bertha Gimbel, promised change.

The voters opted for Turry, who crushed Gimbel 1,203-576, a 67 percent margin; in addition, Alliance candidates for clerk and three trustee slots won by equally overwhelming margins.