The 2012 election cycle is over, but candidates are already girding for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. It never ends.

Here's the early lineup and outlook.

2013: Volatility is epidemic. There will be elections in 115 suburban Cook County municipalities and all 30 suburban townships. America's 5-year economic recession has created fiscal paralysis and political paranoia. Tax revenues have dwindled, operating expenses have escalated, borrowing and bond issues have become the norm, and office holders are suffused with a fear of voter retribution.

Instead of raising taxes, municipalities are hiking fees. Real estate revenue taxes, once a staple source of income, evaporated with the housing market collapse. Home owners, suffering from declining property values but increasing property tax bills, will not tolerate bloated spending.

"It's a really toxic environment," one suburban politician said of the developing 2013 races. "Voters expect services, but they don't want to pay more" Any incumbent tarred as a tax raiser is toast.

In off-year contests like next year's, voter turnout is barely a quarter of that in a presidential year. That's a contest between "controlled" voters, meaning those who have a city or township job (and their families and friends) or who otherwise benefit from the incumbent administration, and those who are angry and have a real or imagined beef against the status quo.

The 2013 election is not shaping up as a "throw the bums out" election. Here are some interesting contests:

Cicero: Larry Dominick, the clownish Cicero town president, wins elections in this 75 percent-plus Hispanic suburb the old-fashioned way: he buys them, as did Betty Loren-Maltese and her predecessors. Fat, bloated and out of control are the watchwords for Cicero's government.

Although Cicero has a population of 83,891, it has only 26,931 registered voters. Dominick beat Roberto Garcia by 6,608-3,628 in the 2009 election. Juan Ochoa, former Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority chief executive officer and president of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, is running. Dominick's "controlled" vote is about 6,500. If turnout exceeds 13,000, Ochoa can win.

Harwood Heights: If Chicago is "The City That Works," Harwood Heights is the "City of the Revolving Door." Democrat Ray Willas was a fixture as mayor from 1973 to 2001. Republican Trustee Norb Pabich won the job by 75 votes in 2001, and Democratic Trustee Peggy Fuller ousted Pabich by 38 votes in 2005. Fuller quit in 2009, and Republican Trustee Arlene Jezierny defeated Trustee Mark Dobrzycki by 271 votes in 2009. Trustee Jimmy Mougolias, who was with Fuller in 2005 and Jezierny in 2009, is running for mayor in next year's election.

A huge issue -- and Mougolias's main attack -- was the proposed Mariano's store at Lawrence and Harlem avenues. The developer wanted the city to pay $5 million for the land. Jezierny's deal was to give the developer a 50 percent reduction on the city's 1-cent sales tax. Mougolias's campaign is fizzling.

Niles: The shadow of disgraced former 47-year mayor Nick Blase has lifted, and Niles has transitioned from bossed to boisterous. Trustee Bob Callero, a Blase ally, won election in 2009 over Trustee Kim Biederman, Chris Hanusiak and two other candidates by 1,190 votes, getting 48.9 percent of the vote. Callero may or may not retire. Already angling to run for mayor in 2013 are Trustees Andy Przybylo, Louella Preston, Joe LoVerde and Hanusiak.

Park Ridge: You can't beat "Mayor No" with nobody. Dave Schmidt's austerity policy has encountered minimal resistance. Five of the seven aldermen elected in 2009 have resigned in frustration, figuring their salary of $100 per month is not worth the aggravation. Schmidt would usually veto whatever budgets or appropriations the City Council passed, but nobody has seized the "No Mayor No" standard.

Schmidt, a conservative Republican, upset the more moderate Republican incumbent, Howard Frimark, by 4,897-3,801. Frimark could try again. No Democratic candidate has emerged.

The fulcrum of Illinois' 2014 election is Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin. Does he or does he not run for a fourth term? Durbin, who will be age 68 this month, has publicly expressed his ambivalence about running for re-election in 2014, which would mean that he would be 75 when his next term ends.

The two "no go" 2014 obstacles, and sources of dissuasion for Durbin, are Senators Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer. Reid, of Nevada, who will be age 73 in December, is the Senate's Democratic majority leader, and his term doesn't expire until 2016. Schumer, of New York, who will be age 62 this month, is Wall Street's man in the Senate, a former Senate Campaign Committee chairman, and a major fund-raiser for other senators. Schumer raised more than $35 million for his 2004 and 2010 re-election campaigns. Durbin and Schumer, both combative liberals, lust after Reid's powerful job.

Durbin, a onetime staffer to his predecessor, Democrat Paul Simon, was elected as a U.S. representative from the Springfield area in 1982, and he won Simon's Senate seat in 1996 by 655,204 votes, getting 56.1 percent of the votes cast and running 42,284 votes ahead of Bill Clinton. Durbin was re-elected in 2002 by 778,063 votes (60.3 percent) and in 2008 by 2,095,223 votes (67.8 percent), getting 196,496 more votes than Barack Obama. Durbin is unbeatable in Illinois.

After the 2004 elections, when Democratic majority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota was defeated, majority whip Reid won Daschle's post, Durbin won the whip's job, the number two position, and Schumer became conference chairman, the number three job. Reid looked like a loser in 2010, but he was rescued when the Republicans nominated a flawed Tea Party candidate.

Durbin has been in Washington for 30 continuous years. He covets Reid's job in 2016, but he has no guarantee that he could prevail over Schumer, who is 6 years his junior. So Durbin has a stark choice -- retire in 2014, do some lobbying, make scads of money, and enjoy life, or commit himself to 8 more years, until 2020. Prediction: Durbin will retire.

Also on the 2014 ballot are a slew of statewide offices, the most important being governor. Polling has shown incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn with positively anemic "re-elect" and "unfavorable" numbers. In a recent survey by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, Quinn was rated among the nation's worst governors due to his obdurate tax-and-spend mentality.

Other governors, such as those in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia, have cut spending and begun solving their state's pension crisis. Not Illinois. Lambasted by his critics as inert, dilatory, inept, inconsistent and clueless, Quinn will not be re-elected, but he could be renominated in a large Democratic field. The field will be minuscule if Attorney General Lisa Madigan runs. In a one-on-one against Quinn, Madigan wins overwhelmingly. Against a bunch of second-tier Democrats, such as state Representatives Jack Franks or Lou Lang or 2010 loser Dan Hynes, Quinn could triumph.

If Durbin quits, Madigan would be the likely winner of the seat.

For 2015, Chicago's ubiquitous mayor, Rahm Emanuel has taken a page from the Bill Clinton play book: a sound bite and photo op a day keeps the public's boredom away. The genius behind that concept is that voters do not necessarily remember what Emanuel does, says or proposes, but they do remember that he's constantly doing something.

Over time, such constant exposure can prove tiresome, and eventually Emanuel will become insufferable -- but not by 2015. Emanuel's "tough guy" approach to the teacher's demands didn't prove astute, but union anger will not manifest itself in union money or a union-backed opponent. Emanuel can easily raise $10 million from liberal, Jewish, Clinton and Hollywood sources, and he can always count on a ringing endorsement from Clinton and Obama.

Besides, Emanuel likely is running for president in 2016 or, if that fails, in 2020. So, to use a slang expression, he's soon "gonna be outta here." Who's going to be dumb enough to run against him, or bankroll somebody who's running against him, if there's even the slightest possibility that he'll be in the White House? Emanuel would be foolish to run for governor or senator in 2014, as that would only deplete his money and risk defeat. Why not a mayor for president?

One problem which will reach critical mass in 2014-15 will be the city's pension obligation, which must be solved by increased property taxes or borrowing. Emanuel will remain as mayor until he gets elected president (or maybe vice president on a Hillary Clinton ticket).

36th Ward: In the City Council's remap, a new Hispanic-majority 36th Ward was drawn and pains were taken to include the home of state Representative Luis Arroyo in the new ward. Arroyo is a protege of county Assessor Joe Berrios and Alderman Dick Mell. He is a lock for the seat.

For 2016, sympathy for ailing U.S. Senator Mark Kirk's medical plight does not necessarily translate into votes. Illinois is an overwhelmingly Democratic state, and Republican Kirk won by just 59,220 votes (with 48.1 percent of the vote) in 2010, a banner Republican year. Kirk, age 53, suffered a partially disabling stroke in January, has been a senator in abstentia, and is still recovering.

To keep his seat, Kirk should be traveling Illinois exhaustively, not non-existently, building a network and a base for 2016. The buzz in political circles is that first lady Michelle Obama will run. If so, she's unbeatable.