I have no problem with his position on the issues (ideologically he's probably the second most conservative statewide official we've had in the last decade, after Peter Fitzgerald), but he's damaged goods now and 2002 loss to Blago was his last hurrah. His record as A.G. and DuPage Co. States Attorney will always come back to haunt him and the Dems will never let people forget he put "innocent" Rolando Cruz on death row (no mention of the fact Rolando is a scumbag guilty of other crimes and probably deserves to be in jail even if he didn't kill that particular guy). Half the threads on this board inadvertently show another huge problem -- people confuse Jim Ryan with George Ryan and Jack Ryan (Lurker even managed to mix up the two of them in the same thread, associating Jim Ryan's Rolando Cruz case with Jack Ryan's kinky sex "scandal")
We're fine right now with the field we got: three fairly reliable conservatives (Brady, Proft, and Andrewjewski), and three combiners (Dillard, Schillerstorm, and McKenna). Ryan will just muddy up the field more and if he wins the nomination he'd be a very weak general election candidate because he's a rehash of the old guard. Please Jim, take the hint.
And just for the record...
THE FOLLOWING ILLINOIS POLITICAL FIGURES ARE NOT RELATED:
George Ryan (RINO)
Jim E. Ryan of DuPage (R)
Jim A. Ryan of Chicago (D, a liberal activist judge)
Jack Ryan (R)
Patrick Ryan (D)
Rick Ryan (D)
Bill Brady (R)
Pat Brady (RINO combiner)
Patrick Fitzgerald (I)
Peter Fitzgerald (R)
Richard M. Daley (D)
Vi Daley (D)
Matt T. Murphy of Evergreen (R)
Matt G. Murphy of Palatine (R)
Mary Murphy (D)
Susan Murphy (D)
Patrick Murphy (D)
See examples here:
JACK RYAN, no relation to...
JIM RYAN, no relation to...
GEORGE RYAN, criminal DIABLO scumbag.
At least we can be thankful that Congressman Jim Ryun (R-KS) and Congressmen Paul Ryan (R-WI) are in other states so they won't confuse Illinois voters even more.
And speaking of our infamous 2002 Senate candidate Jack Ryan, FEC records recently showed that he donated the maximum amount to Eric Wallace in the primary. And Jack Ryan lives in Mark Kirk's district. Seems that those who know Marky the best don't like him. Hmmm.