When reflecting on the progress of the Republican Party in Chicago over the past few decades, the word “dormant” may come to mind. The city hasn’t seen a red mayor since the Depression-era days of “Big Bill” Thompson, and Ald. Brian Doherty (41st), the city council’s only Republican alderman for the past twenty years, walked away from his post in May after a failed bid for a state senate seat.

The Grand Old Party hasn’t fared any better on the city’s North Side, where — with the exception of past lawmakers like moderates Arthur Telcser and Elroy Sandquist — the lineage of political leaders has long run in the blue.

“There was a time when Republicans were important on the North Side,” said Dick Simpson, head of the Political Science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who also writes a monthly column for Skyline. “That hasn’t been for a couple of decades.”

Though the pendulum doesn’t look to be swinging back that way anytime soon, some political contenders for a Republican seat in the 43rd Ward believe that the time is right to start building a base on the North Side.

In March, among other city seats, registered voters in Chicago’s 50 wards will elect their committeeman. These are unpaid, political positions, in which electees are charged with appointing election judges, overseeing voter registration and promoting their political party within their respective ward.

In the 43rd Ward, the post of Democratic ward committeeman is currently filled by Ald. Michele Smith. Smith, who took up double duty in the ward after winning the aldermanic seat last year, is currently unchallenged for the title.

“I think that says a lot,” said Chris Cleveland, the ward’s current Republican committeeman. “Once you’re part of the machine and you are the anointed one, there’s no further competition.”

A past aldermanic contender in the ward who was appointed to the committeeman seat by Cook County Republican Chairman Sig Vaznelis in November, Cleveland is running as the incumbent for the post against two other candidates: Kent Griffiths, a former Republican ward committeeman in the neighboring 32nd Ward, and Marcus Buenrostro, a Chicago police officer whose wife, Bita Buenrostro, ran for the ward’s aldermanic chair last year.

Cleveland admitted that his branch of the GOP doesn’t look like much now — the Republican ward committeeman currently has no physical office — but he said that the gears of support are turning.

“We are rapidly increasing the number of volunteers … and getting up to speed pretty quickly,” he said.

Back in 1999, when he ran an unsuccessful campaign against Ald. Vi Daley (43rd), Cleveland didn’t get much love as a republican candidate in Lincoln Park.

But looking at the city’s recent pension issues, the increased sales tax in Cook County and the “deterioration of city services,” Cleveland said he believed that now more than ever his party has a chance at becoming a more integral part of the city’s political sphere.

“Life is different now,” he said. “People are much angrier with city government.”

His opponent, Griffiths, concurred.

“The [Democrats] have screwed up, they’ve chased jobs out of Chicago … there’s no reason for them to go on, it’s a failed monopoly,” he said.

Griffiths, the CEO of a business consulting firm who once served as president of the 43rd Ward Republicans, cited the rise of Republican (or perhaps anti-machine) political sentiment in what he considered to be conservative victories in his former ward in recent years.

He noted that one-time Cook County Board presidential candidate Tony Peraica took 1,000 votes over Toni Preckwinkle in the 32nd Ward in 2010 — though Peraica ultimately lost the county-wide election.

Griffiths even counted Ald. Scott Waguespack’s (32nd) victory in 2007 as a win for conservatives, as the Democratic alderman unseated Ted Matlak, a key cog in the Northwest Side political machine.

“These are Republican friendly wards, and always have been,” he said.

Griffith’s candidacy for the 43rd Ward Republican Committeeman seat is currently being challenged by Cleveland over a technical detail in his nomination papers.

Skyline was unable to reach Buenrostro for this story.

While a red and blue City Council may still be far off, Republicans might have a chance to cultivate a political foundation on the North Side if they play their cards right, said UIC’s Simpson.

Simpson, who was also once a Democratic alderman in the 44th Ward, said that given the lack of a clear Republican candidate for this year’s presidential race, Republicans in Illinois could potentially gain leverage if they can make an impact on that nomination.

“If I were trying to organize the Republicans, I would try to organize them around the presidential race,” he said. “You might be able to get an alderman somewhere, but you really have to build the party first.”

Elections for Ward committeeman are scheduled to be held on March 20.