While other incumbents were taking their lumps in recent local elections, Republicans may have found rising stars in the mayor of Algonquin and the two top public officials in the City of McHenry.
Ted Spella won re-election to the top job in Algonquin in a landslide, while Mayor Steve Cuda and City Clerk Pam Althoff in McHenry also showed their colleagues in other municipalities how to win big.
Their secrets? Have a good record, don’t give your opponent an issue with which to inflame voters and buy a new pair of shoes.
“I bought a new pair of casual walking shoes in January and knocked on about 3,000 doors on weekends,” said Cuda, 43, an attorney.
Cuda said he “even left work early during the week to ring doorbells until dinner time. I wore the shoes Election Night for good luck and then threw them in the garbage because the heels were worn out.”
“I love getting out and meeting the people,” he said, “and I think the voters knew I had a good record.”
Cuda received 42 percent of the vote in a tough, sometimes nasty, three-man race that included charges that the county Republican Party made a rare entry into a local race and lost.
Ald. David Lawson, 40, who ran third with 26 percent of the vote, said the GOP provided financial backing and legwork for Thomas Low, 49, an insurance agent, who finished with 32 percent.
“The county Republicans supported Low, and I was very disappointed to see what is supposed to be a nonpartisan election become a partisan contest,” said Lawson, the controller of a Crystal Lake firm who also is the City Council finance chairman.
“I haven’t seen the party get involved in local elections before, but they were very effective,” Lawson said. “If it had only been a two-man race, the party might have been able to get their man in.”
Low denied that he got GOP backing and called Lawson’s allegations sour grapes.
“If you get down in the mud with people, you get dirty, and I’m not going to do that,” Low said.
Low said he lost because “Lawson may have taken more votes away from me than I expected.
“Voter apathy was another factor,” Low added. “The turnout was about 23 percent, and it’s sad that 8 of 10 people didn’t come out to vote.”
Meanwhile, Algonquin’s Spella, 66, had the biggest winning margin among the county’s five largest municipalities.
“I had a very strong group of about 13 people that worked the neighborhoods for me, and I think I’ve had a good record,” said Spella, a retired director of computer operations at Elgin Community College who, like Cuda, is finishing his first term.
The success of Cuda and Spella did not go unnoticed by their colleagues.
“Voters don’t like elected officials who sit in their ivory tower and think they will automatically get re-elected,” said Crystal Lake Mayor Robert Wagner, who will be up for a second term in two years.
The enjoyment that Cuda and Althoff get out of campaigning helped them develop a personal touch with voters.
“I’m out in the public a lot, and people like to feel at the local level that they have a one-on-one relationship with you, and that they know where to find you when they have a problem,” said Althoff, 43.
“I started knocking on doors right after Christmas and had my little map of the city to help me,” said Althoff, who was appointed clerk three years ago to replace the retiring Barbara Gilpen.
“I probably visited 60 percent” of the city’s 5,700 homes, Althoff said. “This was my first election, and the best part was meeting the people. But the anxiety level was very high.”
Added Cuda: “The best advice I’ve ever gotten is to campaign like I’m 5 percentage points behind.”
