The candidate with unquestionably the most seniority involved in today’s recall election in California studied at Northwestern — in the 1920s.

At 101 years old, Mathilda Spak is the oldest candidate in the race.

“I figure I’ve got four or five years to fight,” she said.

When 99 Cents Only Stores, a California retailer, decided to pay the $3,500 to put a candidate 99 or older on the ballot, they found Spak.

“What we discovered was out of all the people who submitted applications, no one had the energy that Mathilda had,” said Albert Lee, spokesman for the company.

But Spak’s application was one of 112 election officials threw out in August for being filled out incorrectly because she did not have the necessary number of signatures. Although not on the official ballot, Spak is running as a write-in candidate.

The race revolves around an effort to remove current Gov. Gray Davis from office. Despite court challenges, more than 130 candidates, will be on the ballot, including actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. Although those two may be the front runners if Davis is recalled, Spak’s status as the oldest candidate has helped her campaign.

The media attention ranged from articles in major newspapers such as USA Today and the Chicago Tribune to appearances on television all over the world.

“I found out that she was a candidate because we had a phone call from my sister in Amsterdam,” said Jerry Karel, a relative in Highland Park, Ill.

Karel said his sister saw “Tilly,” as he calls Spak, on CNN in the Netherlands.

Spak said the publicity has made people aware of her campaign’s main issue: extending the hours of children’s health clinics in California.

“I think it has helped because many of the clinics that were going to be closed are reopening,” she said. “People did not realize how much the clinics meant to the poor people.”

Reached by phone Sunday at her Long Beach home, Spak was between campaign stops. After speaking at a breakfast meeting, she was resting before an afternoon speech at a women’s organization in Glenview, Calif.

“They don’t have to vote for me, but I want them to get out and vote,” she said. “There are too many educated people who think they don’t have to vote.”

Her parents are German and Russian, and Spak said they always encouraged her to exercise her rights as an American.

“They were so thrilled with America that words can’t describe it,” Spak said.

Spak moved to Long Beach, Calif., to open a restaurant with her sister and brother-in-law. On a visit home to Wilmette about 10 years ago, she said she was saddened to find four more houses on the lot with her childhood home.

“They took the garage down and the beautiful trees down,” she said.

Spak said Wilmette and Chicago have changed a lot since she was a child in the beginning of last century. Her mother wanted to move because she thought new street signs made Wilmette too congested.

But even recent changes haven’t stopped Spak from visiting every few years.

“I still love Chicago,” she said. “I don’t care what anyone says.”

Karel, 62, who is the son of Spak’s cousin, remembers her as a baby sitter, although she never had children herself. Spak said she works with children at a hospital in her area instead.

“All the sick children at Memorial Hospital are my children,” she said.

When she studied at NU in the 1920s, Spak didn’t finish her degree. Instead, she went into business.

“I was quite a snippy young person at that time, she said. “I thought I knew everything, and then when I got into business I found out how stupid I was.”

“I think if I were back in Chicago,” she said, “I might go back to school again.”

But Spak said she’s content to further her volunteer work. Then she’ll retire.

“That’s my goal — to get everything accomplished I want by 105.”