Not that it's a bad thing, but why is Fitzgerald retiring after one term?

[Hippo_Tron]

It seems that the GOP is having so much trouble finding a decent candidate that I'd think that they'd be begging him to run for re-election. He's a fairly young guy, so why is he leaving after just one term?

[No2W2004]

1. He's seen the writing on the wall?

:shrug:

[Wabbajack]

2. He opposes the corrupt party leadership

He pissed them off by picking a US Attorney from out of state and standing against some pork Hastert wanted so they forced him out. Big mistake on their part.

[jmags]

6. That "US Attorney from out of state"

may be Fitzgerald's finest legacy, as he is the one investigating the Plame ordeal (although also named Fitzgerald, they are not related). I would have never voted for the guy, but as far as GOP senators go nowadays, he wasn't that bad. And although the guy was a bit of a maverick (by GOP standards), he voted with Bush the majority of the time. I think this whole situation personafies the problem with the Illinois GOP and the GOP as a whole.

They have a Senator who doesn't give them 100% loyalty, so they sabatoge his reelection efforts in order to get a lockstep Bush republican in there. It really shows how the lust for power clouds their thinking. Fortunately for us, it blew up in their faces.

But I hope one day we can get back to seeing a GOP that is made up of more Fitzgeralds than Hasterts and Santorums. There would still be major policy differences, but we could go back to having a reasonable and civil debate about it.

[Elad]

3. He's never been liked by the GOP establishment

He's independently wealthy, and got elected on his own dime without much party support. Therefore, he tended to go his own way and clash with the state and federal GOP.

He was basically pressured out, the state Republicans were threatening to run people against him in the primaries, so he basically wimped out and figured he'd save the party a bloody primary by bowing out.

[Hippo_Tron]

4. Considering the state of the GOP in Illinois

You'd think that they'd take anything they can get.

[Elad]

5. You'd think so

but they're entirely too arrogant. They felt invincible riding Bush's artificially inflated popularity, and thought they would do fine.

Personally, as a citizen of Illinois, I've felt like ever since 2002 the state has proven itself as one of the most solidly Democratic states in the country. Our entire state government is now Democratic, we have one Senator (Durbin) who is arguably the most progressive Senator after Wellstone's passing who was reelected by an enormous margin, we've voted for Clinton and then Gore, and now we're prepared to send yet another maverick, Obama, to the U.S. Senate.

I'm a little surprised by Obama's rise to party celebrity, honestly. I kind of expected the national Dems to ignore him, even after he won the seat. Frankly, I don't think there's a candidate in the state that can beat Obama, especially now that the national party has placed him up on a pedestal, his popularity will only grow. Jim Edgar is the only one who might stand a chance, but I don't think he'll run.

[buycitgo]

7. people are forgetting that Obama was losing by about ten

points until Hull's nasty divorce revelations came out

the polls shifted by over twenty percent in a matter of days, and went south for Hull from there

I wonder what would have happened if it hadn't come out

glad it did, though

go barack!

[Elad]

8. I think Obama had it in the bag from the get-go

He's enormously popular among the party loyals, and after the primary there has really been little indication of bitterness or division. He's charismatic and from Chicago, so once the Chicago machine started rolling, he would have steadily gained and won by about 5 points, I think.

Even here in DuPage county I've seen little enthusiasm for Ryan or any GOP candidates. No matter what would have happened, I think Obama simply just had it in the bag. Once he was nominated, I literally stopped worrying about the seat.

[buycitgo]

9. agree about the nomination part, but you really think he'd

have caught Hull?

not that it matters, just curious

and, AFA DuPage, how cool would it be if that perennial yute, Henry Hide the Salami, could get his cheezy ass booted out

pipedreaming there, but he's way up there on the smarmy hypocrite scale

good choice he made of Schippers, wasn't it?

I have videotape of me calling him on Bruce duMont's show and asking him how his girlfriend was doing

should have seen his face. he told me to go to hell. that was FUN!

[Hippo_Tron]

10. For one thing, he's black

That's part of the reaosn he's recieving huge party support. The others being that he is young, charismatic, and almost a shoe-in for the senate and the democrats need all of the senate seats that they can get.

[davsand]

11. Fitz got crosswise with the Conservative wing of the GOP, too.

He towed the party line a lot of the time, but he peeved the conservative faction of the GOP here in Illinois and THAT was a big reason he caught so much crap from the party.

I heard (not that I have super connections in the IL GOP!) that he was getting a lot of pressure from the right wingers. He told them to hike and decided to do it "his way." The net result was he was ready to quit after one term.

What a lot of folks don't realize is that the IL GOP is in the mess it is right now, in part, because of this civil war between the uber-right and the rest of the party. The decision to run yet another Ryan against Blag was the kiss of death for that election--and it has polarized things even more.

Obama was polling behind hull for one major reason, Hull bought a HUGE amount of TV time early. He had better name recognition early on, and as a result polled well because IL Dems didn't know Obama all that well. hull carried only a couple counties in that primary.

Additionally, you have to remember that Hynes was in that race, and he did VERY well in the downstate area. If that race had been decided on the number of counties won, Hynes would be our candidate right now. Hynes won something like 90 counties (I think?) and Obama won in the counties where the large number of votes were.

I really think a lot of folks underestimate Obama's ability as a political strategist. Winning that race was a huge thing--and he did it quite handily. He knows what he has to do to win in the General, and I expect he'll deliver it up.


Laura