GOP is Partially Responsible for Obama becoming a Senator

I had a fun exchange with @imsure (who’s a fine follow) on Twitter last night. She posted a video on Chicago and prompted a conversation about President Obama and the Chicago Machine. He won the Senate seat after a scandal broke out and the rest is history. While I can’t “prove” the Machine’s involvement with this election, there are a few things that need to be made clear. In other words, some serious facts need to be visited. How the Illinois (and national) GOP is partially at fault for this happening. I hope this blog post will at least create some food for thought and make sure this doesn’t happen again. I’m going in reverse (somewhat) so please work with me here. I have taken the time to really look back at this and documented my claims. See if you agree with me.

Before I explain this, I need to set the table a bit and refresh some important things. Barack Obama won the Illinois US Senate seat in 2005. But who did he beat- Jack Ryan or Alan Keyes? Both and I will discuss this later. So where did the Illinois GOP mess up? Peter Fitzgerald. Who is that you may ask? Fitzgerald was the Illinois US Senator that held the seat before now-President Obama. He beat Carol Mosley Braun, who was the first African American female to hold that seat. This guy was a solid conservative Senator. Here is a page to show where he stood on the issues (1). I think it speaks for itself. Here are his views on bailout, made after 9/11 (2). Why did he fall out of favor? He often broke ranks with the Illinois GOP. What really got him in trouble (among other things) was Fitzgerald insisting on an out of state US attorney to investigate corruption in state government. This initiative resulted in several indictments including the last two Governors’ (Blago and George Ryan). The GOP made a mistake because they didn’t back him in his first run and let it be known they weren’t behind him in his re-election. He decided not to seek a second term and decided to go back to the private sector. This is another detailed not only detailing how he fell out of favor with the Illinois GOP but the National GOP as well, but still was known as one who “stood for principles” when deciding not to run (3).

Here’s the breakdown and what resulted. Barack Obama explored the opportunity to run for this seat in 2002, with the likes of David Axelrod as his consultant. He announces his candidacy in 2003. He had a HUGE list of people running in the Democratic Party primary. Below are the results of the Democratic Primary for US Senate (4). Unless you live here in Illinois, this may not make sense so I decided to write in whom some of the other faces are in “( )”:

Democratic Primary, United States Senate, March 16, 2004

Party Candidate Votes % ±% Democratic

- Barack Obama 655,923 (52.8%)

- Daniel W. Hynes (former Illinois Comptroller) 294,717 (23.7%)

- M. Blair Hull (worked at the CBOE, now runs Madlock Capital). 134,453 (10.8%)

- Maria Pappas (Current Cook County Treasurer). 74,987 (6.0%) 

- Gery Chico (Lawyer, today named the new Chairman of City Colleges of Chicago; former Board Chairman for the Chicago Public Schools; former Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley) 53,433 (4.3%)

- Nancy Skinner (nationally syndicated talk show host). 16,098 (1.3%)

Majority 361,206 29.4

Turnout

1,242,996

Now this is going to get sticky. We know Barack Obama beat Alan Keyes for this seat. We all know that Jack Ryan was the GOP front-runner for that seat. Then scandal broke from his divorce due to sealed records (agreed by Ryan and then-wife Jeri Ryan, aka Seven of Nine from “Star Trek Voyager” and Ronnie Cooke from “Boston Public” among other roles). This was the tip of the iceberg. While the Machine took advantage of Ryan’s missteps, it was actually the GOP candidates that wanted the records unsealed (5) along with local media. Another Illinois GOP misstep- get everyone in step. Those records were sealed for years before the need for this sudden disclosure. Ryan also opposed to the unsealing of John Kerry’s divorce from his first wife (during the 2004 Presidential Election). Ryan steps down as a result. Who came in the picture? Alan Keyes, who at the time didn’t even live in Illinois. Last time I check, it would be a good thing to live in the state that you decide to run for office in. In fact, I thought it was required. While then-Illinois Senator Obama was a rising star, I think Senator Fitzgerald would have given him a run for his money.

This is a result of a party without any identity, at the time anyway. Here was a guy in Peter Fitzgerald who was by definition conservative (more so than those who were calling themselves conservatives). The state and national GOP wanted him out and they got what they asked for. Then the one candidate that may actually win the seat has to step down. Why? Dirty laundry sought by liberal media outlets and those who ran against Jack Ryan. Now the two most legitimate candidates were no longer and had to scramble to find a candidate. Now, Illinois got what we deserved or at least what too many asked for. What's happen since? We now have Mark Kirk in the Senate, who decided to vote for the “Cap and Trade” mess. It’s a shame because Kirk is now the lesser of the evil this time around because Alexi Giannoulias (who’s running opposite Kirk) is from the same liberal cloth as the current President. I hope Patrick Hughes decides another run for Senate because my home state deserves better….no the best. He’s the closest thing to Fitzgerald. It’s a shame Hughes got to the party so late.

A word of advice for the GOP. If we get a legitimate candidate, get behind them- don’t try to bury them.

Works Cited:
1. Peter Fitzgerald: “On The Issues” Internet site: http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Peter_Fitzgerald.html.S.%20Senator%20Peter%20G.%20Fitzgerald


2. “Who Will Bail Out the American Taxpayer”, Peter Fitzgerald speech: http://www.illinoisgop.org/archives/storys/issue_90.html

3. “Retiring Senator Stood Up for Principles”, Radley Balko, Fox News Internet site, 2/14/2004.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,111159,00.html

4. Democratic Primary, United States Senate, March 16, 2004: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Illinois,_2004

5. Chicago Sun-Times archive: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CSTB&p_theme=cstb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=(Senate%20rivals%20urge%20Ryan%20to%20unseal%20divorce%20records)%20AND%20date(all)&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(Senate%20rivals%20urge%20Ryan%20to%20unseal%20divorce%20records)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no