November 20, 2002
MCAULIFFE, SILVESTRI DEFY STRONG DEMOCRATIC SWEEP
ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART
There are defeats. There are drubbings. And there are humiliations and, occasionally, snookerings.
On Nov. 5, all of the above occurred on the Northwest Side in the heated contests for state representative in the 20th District and for county commissioner in the 9th District. Democratic state Representative Bob Bugielski was defeated by Republican Mike McAuliffe by 2,583 votes. Democratic Cook County Board candidate Rob Martwick was drubbed by Pete Silvestri by 6,831 votes. And 36th Ward Alderman and Democratic Committeeman Bill Banks, who wasn't on the ballot but who put his prestige, credibility and supposedly potent precinct organization behind Bugielski, was humiliated.
And, to add insult to injury, it was Banks who got snookered by Martwick's father, Norwood Park Township Democratic Committeeman Robert Martwick -- rather than vice versa, as was expected. It was thought that Banks would "cut" Rob Martwick in his ward in the County Board race, since Banks is close to Republican incumbent Silvestri. But, instead, Banks carried his 36th Ward for Martwick (see vote chart) by 3,222 votes, which was more than his 2,490-vote margin for Bugielski. But, in Norwood Park Township, Bugielski lost by 937 votes, while Martwick won by 454 votes. To snooker someone, by the way, means to promise something and then to do the opposite.
And further, as if the Democrats' local election debacle didn't ensnare enough high-profile Democrats, the Northwest Side's "million-dollar man," state Representative Ralph Capparelli, who also is the 41st Ward Democratic committeeman, lost every important race. Capparelli, who has more than $1 million in his legislative campaign account, easily won re-election in the 15th District. Banks dispatched hundreds of workers into the 41st Ward to aid Bugielski and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich, longtime operative John Malatesta ran the joint campaign, and Capparelli claimed to have "a worker in every precinct."
But, when the 41st Ward results came in, Capparelli and Malatesta, even with Banks' help, managed to ignominiously lose the three key contests that the Democrats wanted most to win: Bugielski lost by 4,079 votes, Martwick lost by 2,507 votes, and Blagojevich lost by 629 votes. In addition, attorney general candidate Lisa Madigan lost by 3,155 votes, and state treasurer candidate Tom Dart lost by 4,540 votes.
The huge winner in the 41st Ward won't be on the ballot until next February. Alderman Brian Doherty was McAuliffe's campaign manager, and McAuliffe won the ward with 62.5 percent of the vote; Silvestri got 55.9 percent in the ward. The McAuliffe-Bugielski contest was supposed to be a trial run for Malatesta's bid for alderman against Doherty in 2003. The Banks-Malatesta-Capparelli combine was convinced that they could keep McAuliffe under 55 percent in the 41st Ward, and thereby guarantee Bugielski's victory. They failed, and Doherty now looks impregnable next year.
And those murmurings one is hearing from 41st Ward Democrats, directed at Capparelli, sound suspiciously like two dirty words: Step aside.
Both McAuliffe and Silvestri won against great odds. Both were thought to be in grave political danger, and they were up against opponents backed by supposedly powerful Democratic committeemen. Both were thought likely to drown under a huge Blagojevich-inspired Democratic wave. But both candidates campaigned furiously and raised plenty of money; and both hammered their foe with devastatingly effective negative mailers. Here's why each triumphed:
20th District: Musical chairs might be a game appropriate for toddlers, but it's played at great risk by politicians. The Democratic-drawn 2001 legislative remap took parts of Capparelli's old 13th District and McAuliffe's old 14th District and combined them into a new 20th District which takes in most of the Northwest Side, basically from Nagle to Cumberland, between Howard and Diversey. The new district was crafted for Capparelli. McAuliffe was put in a suburban district, and Bugielski, Capparelli's buddy, who represented a district around Belmont-Central, was put in a Hispanic-majority district. But Capparelli decided to run in the new 15th District, to the east (taking in parts of Niles and the 30th, 39th and 40th wards), clearing the way for Bugielski, a member of Banks' ward organization, to move into the 20th District to run.
With Capparelli out, McAuliffe decided not to oppose Republican incumbent Rosemary Mulligan of Des Plaines in the Des Plaines-Park Ridge 65th District, but rather to run against Bugielski. In the March Democratic primary, Bugielski defeated two foes with 53.9 percent of the vote. He got 5,105 votes in the 36th Ward (69.3 percent), and Banks flooded the 41st Ward with workers, enabling Bugielski to get 3,987 votes (43.8 percent) in that ward. But in the election Bugielski had two serious shortcomings: First, he was from a safely Democratic district, so he was unaccustomed to campaigning and he routinely voted for tax increases, while McAuliffe and Capparelli have avoided voting for tax hikes. During his tenure from 1987 to 2001, Bugielski voted for 15 tax increases, aggregating to more than $8.1 billion. McAuliffe sent out mailers characterizing Bugielski as the "Taxman," and the Democrat quickly became toast.
Second, the McAuliffe name is well known. Michael's father, the late Roger McAuliffe, was a state representative from 1973 to 1996. Bugielski not only was relatively unknown in the district, but he had major heart surgery in early 2002, so he relied entirely on precinct workers to spread his message. McAuliffe sent out a mailer detailing that Bugielski lived well outside the new 20th District and charging that he had "a record of neglect" toward his community. That made the toast even crisper.
And McAuliffe campaigned hard, walking precincts upwards of 6 hours a day. The combination of McAuliffe's personal campaigning and his mailers was too much for Bugielski to overcome. The Banks-Bugielski game plan called for him to get 45 percent of the vote in the 41st Ward and over 65 percent in the 36th ward, and to break even in Norwood Park Township. Despite upwards of five workers per precinct on election day, the actual result was stunning: Bugielski got just 37.5 percent (6,109 votes) in the 41st Ward and only 61.1 percent in the 36th ward, and he lost Norwood Township by 937 votes. McAuliffe looks safe for the foreseeable future, even if Capparelli decides to run against him in 2004.
9th District: Democratic icon Tip O'Neill once said that "all politics is local." Martwick lost to Silvestri because not only is politics local, but so are enemies. Rob Martwick, of Norridge, lost a state Senate race in 1996 to Republican Wally Dudycz by just 2,718 votes. At that time he was a Norwood Park Township trustee, and Dudycz hammered him for his $25,000 salary and light work load. Martwick quit his township post in 1997, but he was elected as a Village of Norridge trustee in 1999.
Martwick beat Silvestri by just 454 votes in his home township, and McAuliffe beat Bugielski by 937 votes there. That's not just embarrassing, it's pitiful. Over the years, the Martwicks have made many enemies, and 2002 was payback time. A candidate who barely wins his home base is not going to win the election.
Silvestri's mailers blasted Martwick (as did Dudycz in 1996) for his "$1,068 per hour" work as a trustee and for his tie to his father's law firm, which specializes in tax reductions for large corporations. Silvestri, the mayor of Elmwood Park, pulverized Martwick in Leyden Township (Elmwood Park, Franklin Park, Rosemont and Park Ridge south of Devon) by a margin of 5,348 votes. Silvestri also won Maine Township (Park Ridge and parts of Des Plaines and Niles) by 3,735 votes. In the 36th Ward, where Banks pushed hard for the Blagojevich-Bugielski-Martwick team, Martwick won by 3,222 votes, garnering 61.1 percent of the vote -- the same proportion as Bugielski.
But, while Banks delivered for Martwick, the senior Martwick didn't deliver for Bugielski (or, for that matter, for his son). That, for Banks, is getting snookered. While Nov. 5 was a great day for local Republicans, the local Democrats' decisive defeats leave a lot a sores that won't heal any time soon.