May 8, 2002
HANSEN BEATS OLSZEWSKI IN REPLAY OF '98 PRIMARY

ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART

Some would consider it an oddity, or perhaps just happenstance. Others  might think it to be déjà vu all over. Or it could have been just sheer, blind bad luck.

But the fact remains that wealthy Streamwood realtor Mike Olszewski was unsuccessful in his second attempt to oust 28-year Cook County Commissioner Carl Hansen, of Mount Prospect, in the March 19 primary for the Republican nomination in the far northwest suburban 15th District.

Olszewski, who spent upwards of $300,000, had huge billboards along the expressways, and pumped out over 15 mailings, was expected to triumph. But he lost in 2002, as he did in 1998, for two very tangible reasons:

First, because a third candidate, Tim Schneider, split the anti-Hansen vote, particularly in Olszewski’s base, Hanover Township. That enabled Hansen to win with just 43.5 percent of the vote cast. As detailed in the adjoining vote chart, Olszewski finished second with 32.9 percent, and Schneider third with 23.6 percent. In 1998, a third candidate, Ken Dubinski, also split the anti-Hansen vote with Olszewski, enabling Hansen to win with 50.7 percent of the vote.

And second, because a last-minute smear mailing from an anonymous source, featuring a photo of a scantily-clad woman, made scurrilous, libelous allegations concerning Olszewski’s personal, political and business morals and ethics. The impact of the mailer was devastating. In 1998, another last-minute mailer leveled similar charges – that Olszewski was a “slumlord,” a “flesh peddler,” and a “tax cheat” – with equally devastating effect. Olszewski’s lawsuit for defamation against Hansen is still pending in the Cook County Circuit Court.

The 15th Board District, a heavily Republican area, takes in four townships in the far northwest portion of the county: Elk Grove, Hanover, Schaumburg, and and a small part of Wheeling. It includes the towns of Mount Prospect, Wheeling, Elk Grove Village, Schaumburg, Streamwood, Barrington, South Barrington, and Inverness.

“It’s an absolute outrage, and a total perversion of our political system,” fumed Olszewski, who is also the Hanover Township clerk. Olszewski said he has been in contact with the FBI and with postal authorities. The 10,000-piece mailing, which reached every Republican household in the district, had a return address listing the sender as “N.A.S.O.” in Schaumburg, and did not contain a bulk rate permit number. “It’s incredible that they (the postal service) can deliver bulk mail without a permit,” said Olszewski. “They can’t even tell me who paid for it – if anybody paid for it at all.”

Unlike 1998, when Olszewski traced the smear mailing back to a source which was allegedly connected to Hansen, and then sued Hansen, his campaign manager, his mailing service, and his printer, there’s no obvious fingerprints on the 2002 smear. The flyer proclaims that Olszewski “keeps on lying,” is “just like Bill Clinton,” and that he “doesn’t pay his bills,” ran a tavern in Cicero which had “lewd and lascivious exhibition of flesh,” and tried to interfere with a police gambling raid.

Olszewski denies the 2002 allegations, just as he did those of 1998, but it didn’t matter. The damage was done. “One of my opponents, or a supporter of one of my opponents, did this,” said Olszewski. “This is mail fraud. They should answer and be held accountable both criminally and civilly.” So who is the mailer?

Hansen, age 72, is the Elk Grove Township Republican committeeman, a post he has held for over 30 years. He had no comment on Olszewski’s charges, but his attorney, Jim Hofert, stated that Hansen “had no connection with” the N.A.S.O. mailing. It is “absolutely untrue that we (the Hansen campaign) mailed it,” Hofert said. Ditto for Schneider, the Hanover Township highway commissioner: “I had nothing to do with it,” said Schneider. “And he (Olszewski) is defaming me by making that charge.”

Olszewski ran a brutally negative campaign against Hansen, portraying him as a hypocrite who talks about fighting taxes and spending, but who votes otherwise. According to Olszewski, Hansen voted for four pay hikes for himself as commissioner, voted for 16 county property tax levy hikes, and voted for 17 county forest preserve tax levy hikes. Hansen had only one districtwide mailing, which boomed him as the “Taxpayers’ Watchdog,” and featured photos of Hansen with such Republican luminaries as George Bush, Henry Hyde, Jim Edgar, and Peter Fitzgerald.

In any hotly contested, multi-candidate race, it is the candidate who polls best in his base that wins. Hansen topped Olszewski by 1,861 votes districtwide, in a turnout of 17,716. As shown in the adjoining vote chart, Hansen beat Olszewski by 1,166 votes in Hansen’s home Elk Grove township; and, in neighboring Schaumburg Township, where Hansen was backed by Committeeman Paul Froelich, Hansen  had 1,124 more votes that Olszewski. But, in both townships, the combined Olszewski-Schneider vote (5,112) almost equaled the total Hansen vote (5,939). Quite clearly, the anti-Hansen vote was a solid near-majority.

But while Olszewski beat Hansen by 962 votes in his Hanover Township base, Schneider topped Olszewski by six votes. The total Olszewski-Schneider vote in Hanover (3,442) was four times greater than Hansen’s 774. Had Schneider not been on the ballot, and had Olszewski gotten 75 percent of the Hanover vote, he would have won.

But Olszewski made a serious error: He got involved in the Republican committeeman’s race in Hanover, and he backed Mike Kelly in a challenge to incumbent Steve Rauschenberger, who is the local state senator. Rauschenberger beat Kelly by just 35 votes, and the Rauschenberger-Kelly breakout (2,214-2,181) is not much different from the Olszewski-Schneider breakout (1,706-1,736). Because Olszewski backed Kelly, supporters of Rauschenberger opted for Schneider, and that was fatal for Olszewski.

Was Schneider a Hansen plant, designed to divide the anti-Hansen vote? “That’s non-sense,” said Schneider, who has been township highway commissioner for five years, and was a trustee for 13 years. “I ran because I saw much that could be improved in county government.” Hofert, Hansen’s lawyer, stated that Hansen “doesn’t have that kind of power” to put somebody like Schneider into the race.

In 1998, Dubinski got 2,388 votes (15 percent), to Olszewski’s 5,431 (34 percent) and Hansen’s 8,047 (50 percent), in a turnout of  15,866. In 2002, with turnout up to 17,716, Hansen’s vote was down by 349 and Olszewski’s up by 406. Neither Hansen’s incumbency nor Olszewski’s prodigious spending caused much of a voter bump for either. But the mud heaped on Hansen by Olszewski, and on Olszewski by somebody unknown, caused Dubinski’s 2,388 votes to soar to Schneider’s 4,181 votes. This was a major increase in the non-Hansen and the non-Olszewski vote.

Olszewski is gearing up to run again for commissioner in 2006, but he first must get past an all-but-certain effort by the Rauschenberger-Schneider forces to dump him as township clerk in 2005. Hansen will likely retire, and Schneider will run again. Olszewski may attribute his 2002 loss to Schneider and the smear, but the most persuasive reason was his inability to solidify his base.

How can Olszewski win for commissioner in a district with three big townships (and part of another) when over half the Republicans in his home township hate his guts?

In another suburban Republican brawl, incumbent Commissioner Al Carr, the Cicero Township Republican committeeman, lost decisively (11,763-8,713) to Tony Peraica in the 16th County Board District. Peraica lost to Carr in 1994 as a Democrat, and switched to the Republicans. Peraica was supported by Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, who challenged Carr for Republican township committeeman, and walloped him 5,529-1,361 – even though she is under federal indictment on corruption charges. Peraica now faces Democrat Ron Serpico, the Melrose Park mayor.

Melrose Park may not be quite Cicero’s equal as Sin City, but Serpico’s predecessor as mayor, August Taddeo, was convicted of extortion and federal tax evasion. Expect a really nasty campaign, with Serpico trying to tie Peraica to Loren-Maltese, and Peraica trying to tie Serpico to Taddeo.