Free Republic

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald is keeping mum about who he would like to see succeed him, but some of the Republican's political people are urging RTA Board Chairman Thomas McCracken Jr. to jump into the wide-open GOP primary. "Several people from the Fitzgerald organization have contacted McCracken and asked him to run," a GOP source said. "Some of his people have called and said, 'If you run, the organization is with you.' " Fitzgerald refused to comment. McCracken said he has spoken with members of Fitzgerald's camp and planned to speak to the senator himself--but he declined to elaborate on what...

Can the working people of Illinois afford another millionaire in the U.S. Senate? It has been five years since banking heir Peter F. Fitzgerald spent more than $14.6 million of his personal fortune for the prestige and prominence of membership in the U.S. Senate. Since Fitzgerald announced that he is stepping down, five GOP millionaires have expressed an interest in his seat: Andrew McKenna Jr., Jack Ryan, former Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood, John Cox and James Oberweis. (The Democrats also have a millionaire candidate, Blair Hull.) Where do they come from? Fitzgerald, 42, is among the least effective legislators ever...

Jack Ryan CHICAGO -- There's another Ryan to know in the Republican Party, and he's not in any way related to the other two. At first glance, Jack Ryan may appear to be the Illinois Republican Party’s incarnation of a young Jack Kennedy. He has the smile, and he has the charisma. Then, he’s Irish, he’s Catholic, and he comes from a large family (number three of six). And he has the pedigree and the law degree. Great start. Raised in upscale Wilmette, Ryan attended elite, albeit public, New Trier High School and after graduation went on to another elite...

One Ryan is skipping the U.S. Senate race, and another is jumping in. Former investment banker Jack Ryan announced Wednesday that he will run next year for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. That makes Ryan the first Republican to formally enter the race. A day earlier, former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan said he would not run. Ryan, the GOP's nominee for governor last year, said he chose to continue practicing law and teaching at Benedictine University after a discussion with his wife. "Marie and I pretty much decided I'm not going to run," Ryan said....

Can the Illinois GOP compete for the U.S. Senate? It has been 63 years since a Republican, the late C. Wayland "Curley" Brooks, last won an open U.S. Senate seat in the Land of Lincoln. Next year, for the fourth time since 1980, Republicans have a chance to fill a soon-to-be vacated senatorial seat. In the previous three contests, each GOP nominee lost by pluralities of more than 500,000 votes and received about 42 percent of the overall vote. If former Gov. Jim Edgar had made the race for the seat of the retiring Peter G. Fitzgerald, he would have...

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Talk show host Jerry Springer, considering a U.S. Senate run from Ohio, said he will form an exploratory committee in the coming weeks, while former Gov. Jim Edgar pondered through the weekend whether to jump into an Illinois Senate race. Springer, a former mayor of Cincinnati who hosts a raucous Chicago-based show, said he hired Democratic pollsters Paul Maslin and Diane Feldman to conduct polls and focus groups to determine his viability. "The question is whether I can cut through the clutter of the show,'' said Springer, who attended the White House Corres- pondents Association annual dinner Saturday night...

Black Chicago is attempting to take back the Illinois Senate seat held for one term (1992 - 1998) by Democratic Presidential candidate Carole Moseley-Braun. The arithmetic says State Senator Barack Obama is the man to beat in a crowded Democratic primary field, newly enlivened by Republican incumbent Senator Peter Fitzgerald's decision, last week, not to run for another term. Blacks comprise about one-third of Illinois Democrats. Chicago politics is nothing if not "fluid." Moseley-Braun rode to victory on the strength of a massive Black and Hispanic voter registration and get-out-the-folks campaign in 1992, then spent six uneventful years dissipating the...

WASHINGTON--Former Gov. Jim Edgar is calling a summit meeting of advisers today as he ponders whether to run for the U.S. Senate. "The threshold question is whether he wants to be a United States senator at this time of his life," said Mike Lawrence, who was Edgar's press secretary when he was governor. "He will ask a lot of questions. He is not impulsive." Edgar is expected to work through the best-case/worst-case scenarios rather quickly and not let a melodrama develop over whether he wants to leave his comfortable life of teaching, sitting on corporate boards and high-level lobbying. The...

<p>Poll numbers suggest that the decision this week by Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald, Illinois Republican, against seeking another term in 2004 actually may improve the Republicans' chances of holding on to their razor-thin majority in the Senate.</p> <p>A survey conducted April 8 through 11 by Hill Research Consultants, a Republican polling firm, determined that 45 percent of Illinois voters thought Mr. Fitzgerald deserved re-election, and 25 percent said he didn't deserve to return to the Senate.</p>

She's making it a race. In the 2004 Democratic marathon for the U.S. Senate, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas has moved into a dead heat with state Comptroller Dan Hynes, according to a new poll. But with a third of likely voters undecided and fewer than half declaring a preference for the leading contenders, the Democratic nomination is up for grabs. This telephone survey of 800 likely voters was recently conducted by a nationally reputable polling firm for another senatorial hopeful, who asked not to be identified. The poll's margin for error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.Hynes is...

Democratic challenger Dan Hynes has moved ahead of the beleaguered GOP incumbent Peter G. Fitzgerald in a 2004 U.S. Senate trial heat. Hynes, 34, who has twice won landslide elections as state comptroller, is the early front-runner in what is expected to be a hard-fought Democratic primary. A growing number of Democratic and Republican officeholders view him as a clear favorite over Fitzgerald if Hynes is the Democratic nominee. Fitzgerald, 42, who narrowly defeated a vulnerable Carol Moseley Braun in 1998, admits he is facing a more difficult race next year. It is most unusual for a sitting U.S. senator...

President Bush will support the re-election of U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., in 2004, a White House adviser to the president said Wednesday. “Peter Fitzgerald’s a good man,” said Kenneth Mehlman, deputy assistant to Bush and director of political affairs. “We think when people take a look at his record and what he’s stood for, I think he’ll be in good shape. ... He’s somebody who we like working with and we enjoy working with.” Mehlman made his comments in a morning interview. He also was keynote speaker later Wednesday at the Sangamon County GOP’s 99th annual Lincoln Day Luncheon...

WASHINGTON--Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, who in 1998 became the state's youngest elected constitutional officer in decades, said Wednesday he is preparing to enter the Democratic field trying to unseat Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. Hynes, 34, said he would file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to establish an exploratory committee that would allow him to begin raising money as a candidate for the 2004 race. ''My candidacy is being extremely well-received by people of all ages in all parts of the state,'' he said. ''I offer a proven, effective leadership, a track record of representing all of Illinois and a...

<p>"Concerned that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is positioning himself for a Senate run against him in 2004, Republican Illinois Sen. Peter Fitzgerald has decided to move left in order to discourage any such move," according to the Prowler column (www.americanprowler.org).</p>