Governor to Retire, Forgo Run for Senate

Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar announced his retirement, rejecting a bid for the U.S. Senate that would have mounted perhaps the strongest GOP challenge to Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun’s reelection hopes. “I want to go out on top. Sometimes if you don’t go out on top, they throw you out,” Edgar told a news conference in Springfield, Ill., after his announcement at the governor’s mansion. The 51-year-old two-term governor had been actively lobbied by the GOP congressional leadership to run against Moseley-Braun in 1998 when her first term ends.