IL: 2002 Senatorial Republican Primary Election Result

[RBH]

New Election: 2002 Illinois Senatorial Republican Primary Election Results
   
   

Cox is running for President now

Oberweis is Oberweis

Durkin hasn't done a lot, I bet

[RBH]

The 2004 primary was a lot less organized.

https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2004&off=3&elect=2&fips=17&f=0



And a guy who won 3% statewide did win 49% in one county.

[Joe Republic]

The 2004 primary was a lot less organized.

So there were seven candidates in that race who weren't Jack Ryan, and yet the IL GOP had to draft an out-of-state psycho to take over the nomination after Ryan dropped out?

[Keystone Phil]

The 2004 primary was a lot less organized.

So there were seven candidates in that race who weren't Jack Ryan, and yet the IL GOP had to draft an out-of-state psycho to take over the nomination after Ryan dropped out?

Yeah, very, very odd when you look back on that. We even had a pretty impressive candidate, businessman Andy McKenna, who had a fairly impressive background and the money to run the race. I was a strong Ryan supporter but McKenna was my second choice for the nomination. He is now chair of the IL GOP.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The 2004 primary was a lot less organized.

So there were seven candidates in that race who weren't Jack Ryan, and yet the IL GOP had to draft an out-of-state psycho to take over the nomination after Ryan dropped out?

I've been wondering too how the ILGOP could be so stupid. There were even other candidates volunteering to run who didn't run in the primary. Hell they could've just found some Republican janitor in Sptringfield, put his name on the ballot, not even bother with a campaign, and still would've done better than Keyes did, which might've saved Phil Crane.

[Joe Republic]

It's interesting to note that the chair of the IL GOP at the time was none other than Judy Baar Topinka.  I guess that says something.

[HardRCafé]

Sigh.  It really doesn't, and that isn't an ideological or partisan pronouncement.

The Republican state central committee had sole discretion and was daft enough to want Keyes.  Topinka argued against it tooth and nail but was soundly ignored.

That's just the way it functions, or malfunctions, in Illinois.  Topinka deserves blame for other things but gets it for this instead.

Nor can McKenna get rid of Kjellander.

[Joe Republic]

I'm already aware of Topinka's wranglings with the party central committee, thank you very much.  I'm also aware of her very public distancing of herself from Keyes during the campaign.

But the point is, surely, that if she was so powerless as to prevent the party from picking an out-of-state extremist who was certain to lose, she could have done the honorable thing and resigned early from that post?

[HardRCafé]

But the point is, surely, that if she was so powerless as to prevent the party from picking an out-of-state extremist who was certain to lose, she could have done the honorable thing and resigned early from that post?

That sounds great, but no one in that post would have had any power to prevent it.  The popular perception is that she ought to have acted alone, when the only way she could have acted is in an advisory capacity, which she did.  The state central committee completely ignored her and everyone else.