I am sure that someone in this state would have run, why does Dick Durbin always have an opponent even though he is a shoe in? I don't recall any statewide elections that have been unopposed.
The combine wanted Obama as Senator.
Ditka was considered the candidate but pulled out because the Obama / Combine team had some vicious dirt on him so he vanished without a trace.
They let Jack Ryan win knowing they had dirt on him. They held the dirt until the summer when it would be impossible to have a special election.
So the decision on a candidate was left to the IL GOP / Combine. And they chose Alan Keyes, a person that had probably 5% name recognition in Illinois.
I respect Alan Keyes, I am with him on the issues but he was the worst candidate I've ever seen the repubs put up in this state.
I've worked politics in this state, I know how things work here. This was a complete set up by the combine to literally hand Obama the Senate seat.
It began by the IL GOP viciously attacking Senator Fitzgerald to the point where he retired because it was impacting his family.
Peter Fitzgerald would have trounced Obama! He was well liked in this state, but the Combine didn't like him because he was a conservative so they threw him under the bus and decided Obama was the man to go with.
The three other people I pinged can verify this to you. They are IL Political experts.
I don’t fault Alan Keyes for what happened. What he didn’t realize (for whatever reason) was that he was being used, and he should’ve told the IL GOP to take a long walk off a short pier. He was put on the ticket without surmising that they had no intention of lifting a finger to help him, it was all window-dressing. In fact, I’d say most of the card-carrying Combiners from the RINO rump voted for Emperor Zero in the general election of 2004 (including Judy Topinka). If anything, it was sad to see a good man like Keyes not know he was the only one not in on the joke.
As for Jack Ryan, although he may have had some kinky fantasies, what he was accused of in the divorce records (which should NEVER have been unsealed, if only because accusations raised in the heat of divorce always involve outlandish allegations), they did not involve his watching other men have sex with Jeri. Their marriage fell apart because she wanted an acting career out on the west coast while his career was in Chicago, and one could predictably see where such an impasse was headed. Needless to say, there was nothing Ryan did that should’ve disqualified him from the Senate nomination he won. If a sour marriage was an excuse, a huge number of elected officials would be out on their butts.
The lady considered as a candidate with Keyes was Dr. Andrea Barthwell who had a minor post in the HW Bush administration. I believe she is RINO but at least she lived in the state for years.
The replacement for Ryan should have been State Sen Rauschenberger who placed third in the primary after Ryan and super loser Jim Oberdouche.
I liked Jack Ryan, poor guy, maybe the only politician in history brought down by a sex scandal involving his own wife. I wonder what he’s doing now.
He probably left the state like Fitzgerald. Our candidate for Cook County Board President last year recently fled to Texas.