What's next for the GOP in suburban Cook County?

The first thing many Republican legislative candidates probably did after securing a win on Tuesday was exhale.

For what used to be a given is now almost a rarity.

Northwest suburban Cook County used to be a Republican stronghold for state lawmakers. Not anymore. After Tuesday's election, the area is split almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats in the legislature.

"Look at Arlington Heights. That place used to be a bastion of Republicanism," said Paul Green, director of Roosevelt University's school of policy studies. "Now a little-known guy named Mark Walker steps in and wins."

Walker, a Democrat, gained 52 percent of the vote to defeat Christine Prochno of Elk Grove Village and win the 66th District House seat.

"It's a lousy year to be a Republican," said Prochno, who had the blessing of the retiring longtime incumbent, state Rep. Carolyn Krause.

However it's a little more complicated than that, Green said.

"What happened on Tuesday isn't a surprise; it's been happening for the last 10 years," Green said. "Republicans seem to focus on social issues like abortion, guns, stem cell research and people aren't interested. They want to know how they're supposed to afford a home. People are worried about education."

State Rep. Rosemary Mulligan's Des Plaines-based Illinois House seat is one half of a state Senate district. When she first started in Springfield in 1993, all three parts - the Senate seat and two House seats - were held by Republicans. After Tuesday's results, she'll be the lone Republican. District 33 state Sen. Dan Kotowski and Walker will be the other two.

Mulligan pointed out she was first elected as a challenger to her own party and said she has tried to keep an independent streak that seems to play well in the moderate district.

"I've never relied just on the local Republican Party," Mulligan said.

Similarly, state Rep. Sidney Mathias, a Buffalo Grove Republican, attributed his election win to keeping a high profile with local voters, though his victory margin was lower than in some past elections. His concern was the number of new voters turning out to vote for Barack Obama for president and fears they simply might not know who he is.

"I think every Republican legislator was worried to some degree," he said.

Schaumburg Township Republican Committeeman Mike Adelizzi believes Republican defeats last week were the result of the "Obama factor," as well as a failure to provide a message of vision in individual campaigns.

"I think the party needs a resurgence," he said. "We made the case why Democrats shouldn't be elected, not why we should. We didn't have the vision."

Though Adelizzi admits to knowing nothing of the personal or professional goals of Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney for Northern Illinois, he said Fitzgerald is the type of person who would be a perfect Republican candidate for governor in two years. He said Fitzgerald is above reproach, has the respect of members of both parties and carries a reputation for cleaning up corrupt government.

While Adelizzi believes Democrats succeeded Tuesday by staying on task and benefiting from discontent over the recent financial meltdown, he maintains there are still distinctly Republican values that must be made understandable to voters.

"My background is business," he explained. "When you sell a product, you have to give people a reason to buy that product. Kellogg's cornflakes doesn't go around beating up other brands. They make you feel good about Kellogg's cornflakes."

Republican values include smaller government, personal freedoms and an understanding of the benefits of business, Adelizzi said. Events of recent years have made it easy for voters to want to lash out at business, but it must be made clear why lower taxes on business help the economy for everyone, he added.

Republican Matt Murphy agrees. He's willing to wait out this wave of Democratic popularity. Because politics, if anything, is cyclical, said Murphy, who won re-election to the 27th District Senate seat on Tuesday.

"Democrats will have total control of the state and national level for the next two years," Murphy said. "If things don't go well, everyone is going to know who to blame."

• Senior State Government Editor John Patterson contributed to this report.