Northwest Side state Senator Jim DeLeo (D-10) is feeling really lucky.

No Republican filed last December to run against him in 2006, in a district that gave Democrat John Kerry 59.1 percent of the vote in the 2004 presidential race. For DeLeo, a free ride is normal. He's been a state senator since 1992, and he had no opposition in 1992, 1996, 1998 and 2002.

But now something unusual is happening. DeLeo will have a Republican opponent in November. He'll have to campaign and spend money. But, as DeLeo's luck would have it, he's got two prospective Republican foes, and they will spend the next several months battling with each other for the privilege of losing to DeLeo, rather than roughing him up.

Under state statute, when a party's legislative nomination is vacant due to the failure of a candidate to file, a committee composed of the city and township committeemen of that party must meet within 60 days of the primary (which was on March 21) and pick a candidate. The 10th Illinois Senate District contains all or parts of the 29th 36th, 38th, 41st and 45th wards in Chicago and Maine, Niles and Norwood Park townships in the suburbs.

In the past four elections, Republicans didn't bother to recruit or nominate a candidate or select a post-primary foe for DeLeo, who is considered a heavyweight player in Springfield. In 2002, after the Democratic-designed remap put DeLeo and 18-year Republican incumbent Wally Dudycz into the same district, Dudycz opted to retire. DeLeo is a close political ally of 36th Ward Alderman and Democratic Committeeman Bill Banks, and his latest campaign report indicates that he had cash on hand of $470,905 as of March 7.

Nevertheless, on May 7 a meeting of Republican committeemen was held at which Joe Hedrick of Niles Township was elected chairman and Chester Hornowski of the 38th Ward was elected secretary. They duly formed the 10th Legislative District Committee, filed their certification with the Illinois State Board of Elections on May 17, and chose 36-year Chicago police officer John Fitzgerald as their nominee to fill the vacancy. Fitzgerald is a trustee of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, an adjunct professor at Lewis University and the owner of a real estate academy, and he possesses enough wealth to self-fund his campaign with $50,000.

The instantaneous result was pandemonium. "McAuliffe and Dorgan went nuts," said Hornowski, referring to state Representative and 41st Ward Republican Committeeman Mike McAuliffe and Rosemont Trustee Jack Dorgan, who is Rosemont Mayor and Leyden Township Republican Committeeman Don Stephens' chief political strategist. "I think it is my job to find and field Republican candidates," Hornowski said. "They didn't want a Republican candidate (against DeLeo)."

Hornowski added that aides from Republican Senate minority leader Frank Watson's office encouraged him to find an opponent for DeLeo.

On May 18 the other shoe dropped. McAuliffe called a meeting of Republican committeemen at his office, organized another 10th Legislative District Committee, chose Fred Rupley as the party nominee, and filed the requisite documentation in Springfield on May 22. Rupley, a longtime state employee, was the 38th Ward Republican committeeman from 1996 to 2004, and he served the final 3 months of Dudycz's Senate term in 2002 after the incumbent resigned.

So now there are two Republican committees and two Republican nominees. "I will do everything in my power to beat DeLeo," Fitzgerald said. "(Rupley's) a shill. He will do nothing to beat DeLeo." Litigation will now determine which committee was legally organized. Whichever committee is validated will have its candidate placed on the ballot.

The subtext to this Republican squabbling is the fact that the McAuliffe/Doherty/Silvestri/Saviano/Stephens Republicans have a nonaggression pact with the Banks/DeLeo Democrats. The deal is that the Republicans in the district's north (41st Ward) don't interfere with the Democrats in the district's south (36th Ward).

McAuliffe shares a Springfield house with Republican colleague Skip Saviano of Elmwood Park, and he shares a district office with 41st Ward Alderman Brian Doherty and Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri, who also is the Elmwood Park village president and a Saviano ally. Saviano was a former legislative aide to DeLeo, who has been a stalwart supporter of a casino in Rosemont.

Initially, the North Side (McAuliffe-Doherty) versus South Side (Banks-DeLeo) rivalry exceeded that of the Cubs-White Sox in intensity. In 1994 Silvestri beat the 36th Ward's Mario Domico for re-election for county commissioner. In 2002, after Springfield Democrats created a Democrat-friendly 20th House District for incumbent Ralph Capparelli of the 41st Ward, Capparelli chose to move to a different district, allowing another incumbent, the 36th Ward's Bob Bugielski, to run for the seat. McAuliffe would have moved to a suburban district to run in 2002 had Capparelli sought re-election, but he stayed put against Bugielski and beat him with 53.7 percent of the vote. In 2004, against Capparelli, McAuliffe won again with 59.2 percent.

In 2002 Banks sent part of his patronage army north into the 41st Ward to labor for Bugielski. John Malatesta and Dominic Longo ran the Bugielski operation in the 41st Ward, and they got creamed, with McAuliffe winning the ward by 4,079 votes (and the district by 2,583 votes). In 2004 the Banks/DeLeo operation did not send any troops north to help Capparelli, and Capparelli lost his 41st Ward to McAuliffe by 5,181 votes.

This year McAuliffe's Democratic opponent is Harwood Heights Trustee Mark Dobrzycki, and McAuliffe is strongly supporting Republican Judy Baar Topinka for governor. What the McAuliffe/Doherty/Silvestri forces do not want is an influx of Banks/DeLeo workers into the 41st Ward soliciting votes for DeLeo, Dobrzycki, Governor Rod Blagojevich and Silvestri's foe, Jodi Biancalana. Picking a formidable DeLeo foe -- such as Fitzgerald -- will do precisely that.

According to Fitzgerald, DeLeo is vulnerable. He suffers from what has been called the "Howie Carroll Syndrome." He was first elected as a state representative in 1984, and he became a state senator in 1992. But he has established neither name nor issue identification. Carroll, after 26 years in the General Assembly, lost a congressional bid in 1998. DeLeo is similarly unknown, undefined and potentially vulnerable.

DeLeo has the kind of baggage that could be devastating, if highlighted. Back in 1989 he was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly taking bribes while working for the Cook County Circuit Court clerk in the 1980s, during the "Operation Greylord" investigation of judicial corruption. After a trial resulted in no verdict, DeLeo opted to plead guilty to a misdemeanor tax offense to avoid a second trial and kept his House seat.

In addition, DeLeo's voting record offers ripe a target. During 1989-90 he supported increases in the state income tax, gas tax, cigarette tax, computer software tax and real estate transfer tax, and he backed an assault weapons ban and riverboat gambling. During 1991-92 he voted for the income tax surcharge extension, gun control and comparable worth for women. During 1993-94 he voted to make the surcharge permanent, raise the tobacco tax and approve driver's license fee and property tax increases.

During 1995-96 DeLeo supported welfare reform, opposed workers' compensation reform and opposed the state budget. During 1997-98 he backed the state budget but voted present on a bill to make carrying concealed handguns a misdemeanor. During 1999-2000 he supported hikes in liquor taxes and vehicle fees and backed the "Illinois FIRST' plan, which increased bonding authority; he also backed dockside gambling.

During 2001-02 DeLeo backed increased legislative pensions. During 2003-04 he backed increases in gas use and riverboat gambling taxes and a judicial pay hike. And in 2005-06 he backed Blagojevich's so-called "pension holiday," deferring pensions until a later date. Overall, DeLeo has voted for 14 tax or fee hikes in 15 years.

Is DeLeo deemed politically potent because he such a great senator? Or is it because he's never had an opponent for senator?

Back in 1990, after his trial concluded, DeLeo was re-elected to the Illinois House with just 56.4 percent of the vote. In 1988, prior to his trial, he won with 64.6 percent. The point is this: DeLeo has not faced any opponent since 1990, and he obviously doesn't want to face one in 2006.

Last autumn, DeLeo told this columnist that he was going to spend $500,000 on five mass mailings to every 10th District household. He had one legislative newsletter in 2005, and he hasn't been heard from since.

The bottom line: DeLeo will not lose in 2006, but the Herculean effort that he will exert to win could cause some Republicans, such as McAuliffe, to sweat, and could cause others, such as Topinka, to lose in the 10th District. If Fitzgerald stays on the ballot, the 36th/41st Ward nonaggression pact will be sorely tested.

(Editor's Note: Stewart is Fitzgerald's attorney.)