Well, it’s official. After Jack Ryan went down (no pun intended) the Illinois Republican Party was in a tailspin, desperately grabbing at loser candidates until one finally stuck.
I’m really not sure what the Republican Party here was thinking. They had a primary; Jack Ryan won. When he dropped out of the race, the candidate should have been Jim Oberweis, who came in second. The party tried to get Steve Rauschenberger (who was a close third to Oberweis) but when he declined, they got really desperate, and even tried to get Mike Ditka!
They did find a real gem of a candidate in Alan Keyes though. Not only has he lost a bid at the presidency, he’s lost the bid for the senate seat in his actual home state of Maryland twice. However, my favorite thing about Alan Keyes would be his views on non-residents of a state running for senate election:
“I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton’s willingness to go into a state she doesn’t even live in and pretend to represent people there. So I certainly wouldn’t imitate her.”
Q.E.D.