[Dan from Michigan]

Oh man. I'm not a Ryan fan at all, but conservatives are going to sit out for ROD BLAGOJEVICH of all people? That's how bad it is??

I'd even vote for Wood, whom I would despise if I lived in IL over that guy.

The saddest part of sitting out is that if the conservatives do that, then the GOP gets killed down the ticket as well, and those toss up seats go Dem in congress. That's what so many people don't understand when they sit out an election.

If I can't bring myself to vote for anyone on the pres or governor ticket, I'll still vote for the congressional, state reps, and state senate seats. It doesn't make sense to sit out and punish Congressman Mike Rogers who is doing a good job, for what Joe Governor is doing.

[usconservative]

Let me clarify:

there's a Senate seat up for grabs in Illinois, ironically it'll be Republican Candidate Durkin vs. Democrat incumbent Durbin. That's a race I'll be sure to vote in.

When I say sit out a race (as in the Governor's race) it means I'll skip that part of the ballot. That doesn't mean I'll sit out the entire election.

[BillyBoy]

I find it suprising that your midterm primary is so late (and ours early), when the sitution was reversed during the PRESIDENTIAL primary. Michigan had that whole fiasco early on with McCain, but Illinois Republicans were pretty disappointed because our primary occured exactly one week after Bush "sealed" the nomination during Super Tues.

Incidentially, even though he had already "won" the nomination, Bush got about 60% of the GOP vote in Illinois, McCain 30%, and Keyes 10% (I voted Keyes). Not a good sign going into the general, and, unfortunately, not a good sign for Jim Ryan either...I hope history doesn't repeat itself.

I really HATE Blago and he's the last person I want to see in that office. The problem, sadly, is that Jim Ryan has been tainted by so much corruption and has so little spine that's he's the lesser of two evils at this point. I won't go into details but he's really got to get his act together if he's going to WIN this thing. On the plus side, at least it wasn't Wood. I would NEVER vote for her. She's the EQUAL of Blago's evil. I could just picture a "debate" between those two, it would look something like the way Lincoln Chafee campaigns in the general: "I want more taxpayer funded abortions!" "Me too!" I'll ban more guns than YOU will, Corinne!" "Oh yeah, well...I'll make it illegal to even THINK about guns!" "Well, I bet you can't double taxpayer spending as fast as I can!" "I already have!" LOL. Good riddance.

On the plus side, really the reverse sitution is true in the Senate race. Jim DurKin is BETTER than most conservatives expected! He's slowly moved further and further to the RIGHT without alienating any of his "moderate" supporters. Now he's probably at least as conservative as Cox claimed to be, and MAYBE even moreso than Bush. The guy has listed his stance on the issues on the FRONT page of his website, and it's clear he's not hiding from a conservative platform:

JIM DURKIN-- ISSUES

*Respects the right of the unborn and is 100% Pro-Life.
*Respects the right of gun owners to protect themselves and their families and to enjoy recreational activities.
*Secure our national borders through strong immigration controls and provide the INS with the tools it needs to enforce our immigration laws.
*Act to immediately reduce the marginal tax rates across the board as well as the capital gains tax to spur spending and investment.
*Repeal the personal alternative minimum tax that affects a growing number of middle class families with deductions like children and dependents.
*Facilitate exploration in ANWAR and other domestic sources to break our reliance on OPEC and foreign sourced oil.
*Provide real school choice through competition so all children have access to the best quality education available.
*Reduce unnecessary federal red tape to allow parents and teachers to do their jobs with accountable local control.
*Implement a national missile defense system to protect our country against attacks from rogue nations
*Enforce death penalty laws as the only appropriate punishment for henious crimes and people like Timothy McVeigh.
*Strengthen our military and rebuild our intelligence capabilities.
*Fight for a Veteran's Bill of Rights to provide the best care possible for our nation's heroes.

I love it. If he pulls this off, we can really turn the tables on Durbin from 1996. Durbin used THAT election to run ads portraying himself as a folksy, moderate, rural family man (all while secretly buttering up the ultra-liberals with his REAL platform), then villifed his GOP opponent as an out-of-touch, mean-spirited, extremist partisan.

Now DurKin can play the same game. heh heh.