I think that Congressman Roskam would be a very good U.S. senator, but I think that St. Sen. Burzynski would be a slightly better candidate. Burzynski is more conservative, especially concerning gun rights. Burzynski has more years of experience, in elected office. I hope that Roskam will be a congressman until Sen. Durbin retires, probably in 2014. Then, Roskam should run for the U.S. Senate.
Burzynski has only 4 more years of experience in elected office than Roskam (currently 18 years for Burzynski and 14 for Roskam) and has the disadvantage of being 6 years older (53 instead of 47). Also, I think that Roskam’s experience would be more helpful in convincing the electorate that he has what it takes to represent it in the U.S. Senate given his experience with both state and federal issues, given that he served 6 years as a state rep, 6 years as a state senator and, at the time that the U.S. Senate term in question commences, will have served 4 years as a U.S. Representative, while Burzynski would have served 2 years as a state rep and 18 years as a state senator. And as someone who has already run three very competitive federal races (he narrowly lost a GOP congressional primary in 1998), including his 2006 victory against all odds, we know that Roskam can take the strain of what promises to be a very tough campaign.
That being said, I know nothing about Burzynski, so maybe you’re right and he’d be an even better candidate.