OK, I was wrong about this. I thought Jack Ryan might hang around long enough to actually stay on the ballot in Illinois and challenge Barack Obama for the state’s Senate seat. Instead, Ryan finally dropped out today.
Republican Jack Ryan officially withdrew from the U.S. Senate race Thursday, nearly five weeks after a sex club scandal forced him to abandon his candidacy.
The Illinois State Board of Elections received Ryan’s withdrawal papers Thursday morning in Springfield, according to Darlene Gervase, assistant to the board’s director.
His exit comes a day after Republican leaders said they were tired of waiting for Ryan to get off the ballot and scheduled a meeting of the committee that will choose his replacement.
I understand the GOP’s frustration with Ryan, but it’s not as if they have someone else who is anxious to go out there and get crushed by Obama.
Last week, [retiring GOP Sen. Peter] Fitzgerald said, “It’s a sad comment on the Illinois Republican Party that arguably no one who is sane is willing to even accept the nomination.”
Perhaps it is a sad comment, but why would anyone who is sane jump into the race now?
What I’d really like to see is the GOP officially give up and not run anyone against Obama — which, at this point, seems like a distinct possibility — and allow Obama to hit the campaign trail for other candidates across the country. I guarantee the list of people who’d want to campaign with him would be long.