{"id":2102,"date":"2004-07-12T11:12:59","date_gmt":"2004-07-12T16:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2102.html"},"modified":"2004-07-12T11:12:59","modified_gmt":"2004-07-12T16:12:59","slug":"a-real-non-ditka-candidate-emerges-in-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/a-real-non-ditka-candidate-emerges-in-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"A real, non-Ditka candidate emerges in Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking of interesting Senate campaigns, Illinois Republicans still haven’t chosen a candidate to lose to, I mean, challenge Barack Obama (D) this year. The St. Louis Post Dispatch joked<\/a> today that a newspaper ad might help:<\/p>\n

Wanted: Candidate to lead a fractured, scandal-ridden party in a late-starting campaign against a strong, well-financed opponent. Prefer wealthy applicants willing to spend heavily with no return and little chance of victory. Boring sex life a must.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, fitting that bill is proving harder than once thought. The candidates that could mount a credible campaign aren’t interested.<\/p>\n

Former Gov. Jim Edgar and state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, arguably the two most respected Republicans in the state right now, both declined to run almost immediately after Ryan’s June 25 announcement that he will leave the ballot in the wake of a sex-club scandal. <\/p>\n

Ron Gidwitz, millionaire ex-chair of the State Board of Education, was cited as someone who could self-finance and put up a respectable fight, but he, too, bowed out. State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger last week became the latest serious possible candidate to issue a polite “no.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Late last week, however, a real candidate seemed close at hand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The deputy director of President Bush’s drug-control office resigned Friday to explore a run for the Senate in place of Jack Ryan, the Republican nominee who dropped out over sex-club allegations, The Associated Press has learned.<\/p>\n

Dr. Andrea Grubb Barthwell, a physician from Chicago, had been deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington since 2002, focusing on reducing demand for drugs.<\/p>\n

The drug-control office announced her resignation in a statement. Supporters Michael Barnes, a Virginia lawyer, and John Fluharty, a Washington lobbyist and adviser to Barthwell, said she was leaving to explore a run for the Senate from Illinois.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barthwell’s path will be far from easy.
\n
\nWhen House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was asked for his thoughts about Barthwell’s possible campaign, he said, “Who? Don’t know her.” That’s not exactly a good sign.<\/p>\n

One interesting tidbit, though. Barthwell, like Obama, is African American. If the state GOP awarded her the nomination, it’d be the first Senate race in U.S. history to feature two black candidates at the same time. Interesting.<\/p>\n

And just when you thought the Illinois Senate campaign couldn’t be any more unusual, there are many who are wondering out loud why Jack Ryan hasn’t formally withdrawn from the campaign yet.<\/p>\n

Ryan himself is hindering the party’s attempts to get back on track by failing so far to carry through on his announced withdrawal. He still has not officially taken himself off the ballot — leading to nervous whispers among some Republicans that Ryan’s national talk-show rounds lately might be groundwork for an attempt to stay in the race. <\/p>\n

“I think he just wants to get his side of the story out before he exits stage-right,” State Republican Central Committeeman Steve McGlynn of Belleville said on Friday. “He said he was getting out of the race, and — I know I said this before — but I’m going to take him at his word.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could Ryan seriously jump back into this race? At this point and with this campaign, anything’s possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking of interesting Senate campaigns, Illinois Republicans still haven’t chosen a candidate to lose to, I mean, challenge Barack Obama (D) this year. The St. Louis Post Dispatch joked today that a newspaper ad might help: Wanted: Candidate to lead a fractured, scandal-ridden party in a late-starting campaign against a strong, well-financed opponent. Prefer wealthy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}