You know, this is really impressive to watch, in that "Thank heaven it's not the Democrats with this mess," sort of way.
The Illinois Republican Party took another body blow Thursday, as the candidate considered the favorite by a number of GOP leaders dropped out of the running to replace U.S. Senate nominee Jack Ryan. State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger said his late entry into the race would have made it nearly impossible to raise the money required to compete effectively against Democrat Barack Obama. [...] "It's just very hard from a standing start to pull something like this together," Rauschenberger said. "We need a candidate with a different set of attributes if you're going to run a 100-day short race." Rauschenberger said he believes "it's still a winnable race," but it would require a politician or celebrity known throughout the state or someone with access to personal wealth or an existing federal campaign fund.
Well, that's the problem, isn't it? With this little time, the Republicans need a known quantity with a private fortune to have even the slightest chance. (Which, peculiarly enough, describes Jack Ryan, more or less. Interestingly, he has yet to file to paperwork to withdraw from the race, although he's announced that he has done so. One would assume that he will file the paperwork once the party lets it be known that they have a candidate; otherwise, he may linger on as a most peculiar lame-duck candidate indeed. I suppose it's marginally better for the Republicans to have a candidate who's not actually running on the ballot than to allow Obama to win in a walkover.) Every known quantity is looking at this mess, looking at the fact that the Republicans were trailing anyway, calculating how much they'd have to spend to become familiar only to likely lose anyway, noting that the national party organization is taking a studied hands-off attitude to this race, and saying, "Um ... no. Really. No. Thanks awfully, but ... no." Reportedly, Rauschenberger even did himself a bit of damage at the national level by refusing; apparently, you just don't say "no" to Big Dennis Hastert. (The way it's been reported in local media makes Hastert sound like a conservative Republican Godfather, really. Any moment now, Hastert's going to call out the local goons to teach Rauschenberger a lesson he's never going to forget.)
It's gotten so weird that apparently they're looking to yank people out of Our Glorious Shrub's administration to try to run for this office.
Bush aide resigns to explore Senate run (Chicago Tribune, registration required)
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS
The Associated Press
Published July 9, 2004, 4:03 PM CDT
The deputy director of President Bush's drug-control office resigned Friday to explore a run for the U.S. Senate in place of Jack Ryan, the Republican nominee who dropped out over sex club allegations. Andrea Grubb Barthwell, a Chicago-area physician, had been deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington since 2002, focusing on reducing demand for drugs. Federal law barred her from seeking the Republican nomination while she worked for the government.
Barthwell, 50, told The Associated Press that no one had assured her that she would be the GOP candidate or that Ryan would actually remove his name from the ballot, something he has yet to formally do. "I'm interested, I want to be considered and I will make myself available to those who make that decision, but I am not assuming that I will be the candidate and I am not assuming that once I get all the information that I need, that I would want to run in this particular race,'' Barthwell said. [...] If Barthwell were chosen to face off against Democrat Barack Obama, it would be the first time in history that two black candidates battled as the parties' nominees for a U.S. Senate seat.
I will admit, the concept of a black woman running as a Republican nominee is ... intriguing. And just the teensiest bit appalling and revolting, of course. Offsetting the publicity advantage -- two blacks running for senator from the same state has never happened before (and no wonder) -- would be the reaction of the GOP's more conservative voters, which would be something like, "EW! EW ew ew ew ew! A woman! And not white! No no never never not even to save the conservative agenda, because she pretty much embodies the anti-conservative agenda by her very existence in that position! NO!" Given that these more ideological driven voters are the ones she might need to persuade to give her money, that would be difficult. It's also an open question as to whether or not she'd receive any support from the national leadership -- it's becoming increasingly apparent that the GOP is beginning to regard Illinois as a lost cause, senatorially speaking. (The upside of that is that we're likely to be spared the incessant campaigning already plaguing Tennessee, Florida and other swing states.) That said, despite her statements to the contrary, one wonders if she'd have resigned an administration position without having gotten some sort of assurance that she would be favorably received as a candidate.
Posted by iain at July 09, 2004 05:23 PM
