Replies

For thread archive:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryan drops out of race for Illinois Senate amid damaging sex club allegations

4:44 p.m. June 25, 2004
Associated Press

Excerpt:

Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan drops out of the race amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days.

CHICAGO – Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan dropped out of the race Friday amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days.

"It's clear to me that a vigorous debate on the issues most likely could not take place if I remain in the race," Ryan, 44, said in a statement. "What would take place, rather, is a brutal, scorched-earth campaign – the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to play."

The campaign began to come apart Monday following the release of embarrassing records from Ryan's divorce. In those records, his ex-wife, "Boston Public" actress Jeri Ryan, said Ryan took her to kinky sex clubs in Paris, New York and New Orleans and tried to get her to perform sex acts with him while others watched.

Ryan disputed the allegations, saying he and his wife went to one "avant-garde" club in Paris and left because they felt uncomfortable.

In quitting the race, Ryan lashed out at the media and said it was "truly outrageous" that the Chicago Tribune got a judge to unseal the records.

"The media has gotten out of control," he said.

*snip*

But the Tribune and Chicago TV station WLS sued for the records' release, and a California judge ordered them unsealed. The couple fought to keep the records sealed, saying the release could harm their 9-year-old son.

"The fact that the Chicago Tribune sues for access to sealed custody documents and then takes unto itself the right to public details of a custody dispute – over the objections of two parents who agree that the re-airing of their arguments will hurt their ability to co-parent their child and hurt their child – is truly outrageous," he said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In retrospect

Subsequent to his withdrawal from the U.S. Senate race in Illinois, Jack Ryan has characterized what happened to him as a "new low for politics in America".[13] According to Ryan, it was unprecedented in American politics for a newspaper to sue for access to sealed custody documents.

Ryan opposed unsealing the divorce records of Senator John Kerry during Kerry's race against George W. Bush in 2004, and Kerry's divorce records remained sealed.

Ryan has made this request: "let me be the only person this has happened to. Don’t ask for Ted Kennedy’s. Don’t ask for John McCain’s. Don’t ask for Joe Lieberman’s. Just stop. This is not a good precedent for American society if you really want the best and brightest to run."[13]

~~~~~~~~~~~~

*snip*

In less than two weeks, a Los Angeles judge plans to decide whether to release any of the sealed documents from Republican Senate nominee Jack Ryan's 1999 divorce from Hollywood actress Jeri Ryan.

L.A. Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider has tentatively scheduled a "final hearing" on the question for June 18.

~~~~~~~~~~

September 17, 2008 - Judge Robert A. Schnider to Retire After 27 Years on Bench
By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider is retiring after 27 years on the bench.

Schnider, 62, said yesterday that he will officially step down Dec. 15, and that he plans to become a private judge with Alternative Resolution Centers.

*snip*

Schnider first joined the bench in 1981, when he was appointed as a commissioner, and has heard family cases since that time. Then-Gov. Gray Davis appointed Schnider, a Democrat, to the Superior Court in 2002, and the jurist later served as supervising judge of the family law departments from 2005 until the beginning of this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*snip*

Indeed, Chapter 5 of her best-selling "Guilty" reviews how Obama and his political brain David Axelrod used the Chicago Tribune to dig into his opponents' tawdry and embarrassing divorce and child custody records in order to win both of that year's elections.

Coulter gets it right on Republican Jack Ryan, how the Chicago Tribune-contrived "sex-less" scandal and weak-spined Republicans who refused to support him destroyed Illinois' only realistic chance of keeping Obama within the state's borders in 2006.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is there any more graphic evidence of how vitally critical the power to nominate/appoint judges is and how seriously necessary it is that we have Pubbies with convictions, spines and fight?

Now hidden from public eye, Jack Ryan handed Obama path to White House

http://nwitimes.com/entertainment/columnists/offbeat/article_b4f4fb58-890d-5781-9840-4539399a4225.html

###

How many readers remember Illinois Republican 2004 senatorial candidate Jack Ryan?

As he campaigned for the Illinois Primary election in March 2004, voters found this 44-year-old politician to have charm, charisma, an award-winning smile, lots of money and movie-star good looks.

*snip*

By June 25, Ryan withdrew his candidacy for the Senate race and was replaced by Alan Keyes, who lost to Obama, gaining only 27 percent of the November votes, compared to Obama’s 70 percent.

German-born actress Ryan, now 40, married French chef Christophe Eme and in March 2008, the couple had a daughter Gisele.

Jack Ryan, 48, has remained single and keeps a low profile these days.

And despite the fact that it was the media that sparked his political downfall, his new career is as a community newspaper publisher in Chicagoland, overseeing a combined circulation of more than 100,000 readers of six newspapers serving the Chicago suburbs of Orland Park, Frankfort, Mokena, Tinley Park, New Lenox and Homer Glen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryan mining for publishing gold in southwest suburbs

http://www.thebusinessledger.com/Home/Archives/CommentaryViewpoints/tabid/86/newsid415/372/Ryan-mining-for-publishing-gold-in-southwest-suburbs/Default.aspx

###

Excerpt:

With declining circulation and plunging revenues, Chicago’s big daily newspapers have hit hard times, but Jack Ryan—former investment banker, inner city school teacher and U.S. Senate candidate—is proving there’s still plenty of opportunity in the suburbs.

Just three years after launching his 22nd Century Media LLC, Ryan has weekly papers in six growing southwest suburban communities. Total circulation stands at an impressive 96,000, and Ryan says that advertisers are becoming believers. The rookie publisher expects his fledgling operation to finish 2008 in the black.

“We think we are on the right track,” he said.

Ryan contends the key to success in print media these days is being hyper-local. His Orland Park Prairie not only does not run stories about Iraq or Washington—or Chicago, for that matter. It also does not carry news from Frankfort, New Lenox, Homer Glen, Tinley Park or Mokena, the five neighboring suburbs where his company has its other papers.

“If you don’t have unique content, you will not be long for the media world. The Web has made information ubiqitous. What happened in Iraq yesterday—there are 50 providers of that,” Ryan said. “If you do have unique content, there are people who want access to that...and you can resell those eyeballs.”

Ryan is able to guarantee his advertisers 100 percent circulation in his six markets. That’s because the newspapers are provided to all residents free of charge.

That approach is part of a trend, said Nancy Lane, president of the Suburban Newspapers of America, a trade group whose members produce nearly 2,400 publications across the United States with total circulation of about 22 million.

“We see major growth with free circulation papers as long as they have quality editorial,” Lane said. “That is a very, very successful model in many U.S. cities. They are able to offer penetration in a market that gets the advertiser’s attention. They are able to reach massive amounts of people in target zip codes,” far more than the 17 to 25 percent that a paid publication might get, she said.

And though it costs about 16 cents a week per home, more than double the cost of the traditional kid-on-the-bike delivery model, Ryan makes sure his papers don’t get ignored on the driveway or lost in the bushes by putting them in the U.S. mail.

“We had to prove we had the content people would want to read and, second, we had to prove they actually had access to it,” Ryan said. “We thought our advertisers would feel more comfortable if they knew it actually was getting into the home...coming in with the personal mail and the bills.”

The free-by-mail approach also means there is no need for subscription, billing and other circulation operations and the expense that goes with them. Printing is done under an agreement with the Kankakee Daily Journal.