Race for Illinois Senate seat wide open after Edgar’s announcement

I intended to mention this on Friday, but it slipped past me. Seeing that I’ve got a few readers in Illinois, I figure it’s still worth mentioning.

With Illinois’ incumbent Senator, Republican Peter Fitzgerald, announcing that he will not be seeking re-election in ’04, White House officials had been pressuring former Governor Jim Edgar to run, assuming (correctly) that statewide popularity and name recognition would be more than enough to propel him to victory

On Friday, Edgar announced that he would not run for the Senate. Acknowledging that it’s tough to “say no to the White House,” Edgar said his heart wasn’t in it and he didn’t want to leave his teaching job at Univ. of Illinois.

The announcement was clearly good news to Democrats who believed Edgar was the only one standing between them and a critical Senate seat pick-up. Though the GOP has the slimmest of majorities in the Senate going into the 2004 cycle (51 seats), Democrats will be hard pressed to snatch many seats away from Republicans, making the Illinois race all the more important.

For Republicans in Illinois, an uphill climb just got worse. The party hasn’t won an open Senate race in the state in 63 years, and their best chance to end that streak said no on Friday. With Edgar stepping aside, the White House has a second choice, Illinois State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, but she also seems hesitant to run, telling reporters that she’s “disinclined” to mount a campaign.

If you’re interested, Steve Neal at the Chicago Sun-Times has a solid rundown on all the prospective nominees.