Fitzgerald should have run for re-election instead of stepping aside for Obama.
He didn’t have much of a choice. The Combine wasn’t going to allow him to run for reelection. They would destroy him in the primary or he’d be taken out in the general. Both parties in IL (controlled by the Combine) opposed him.
Fitzgerald weighed the cost in blood and treasure, that it would take to fight first- his own party in the primary and then the opposition in the general election. Plus- his son Jake, who was 12 years old at the time, and would be 18 and off to college at the end of Peter's second 6 year Senate term, was a factor of consideration in whether to run. Peter had been in public office for as long as his son had been alive. He weighed the cost of public service when balanced against his personal life, AND the battle royale that loomed ahead if he chose to run for reelection and decided it was not in his nor his family's best interest.
That being said, operatives released sealed divorce records of both the Republican (Jack Ryan) and Democrat (Blair Hull) Senate candidate, damaging them enough to give the halfrican the advantage in each election, but for very different reasons.
Note: Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes, the eventual GOP candidate, and a perceived carpetbagger, went down in flames against soebarkah, in the general election. The underhandedness of obama, IL Combine politics, AND the DNC is beyond comprehension. People need to swing from lamp posts for justice to be served.