Thaddeus S. "Ted" Lechowicz, who rode the Northwest Side's large Polish vote to seats in both houses of the state General Assembly before serving a 12-year stretch on the Cook County Board, died of heart failure Monday, Jan. 5, in his Cragin home, said his daughter, Laura Lechowicz Felicione.

Mr. Lechowicz, 70, was also a longtime Democratic committeeman in the 30th Ward, where he got his start in politics in the 1960s as a precinct captain.

"He was always someone who was never afraid to express an opinion and was a continuous fighter for what he saw as his constituents' needs," said Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston), a lawyer and lobbyist who knew Lechowicz from his days in Springfield. "He certainly was a voice for the ethnic Chicago communities."

Mr. Lechowicz was elected to the state House in 1969, moving up to assistant majority leader, and then in 1983 won a seat in the state Senate.

In 1990, he made an unsuccessful bid for Cook County Board president, losing in the Democratic primary to Richard Phelan. But he received enough votes to become a commissioner, for a couple of years holding that post along with his Senate seat.