Scandal Taints Once-Promising Governor

During 35 years in politics, Illinois Gov. George Ryan has never lost a race. But the affable, thoughtful, moderate Republican also has never faced the kind of corruption scandal, deep party divisions and the strikingly low approval ratings that have marked his first term in the governor’s office.

At a gathering tonight in his hometown of Kankakee, the 67-year-old is expected to announce whether he will seek a second term. While back-room oddsmakers seem equally divided on what he will decide, power brokers from his own party--at both the state and national levels--have been hinting for months that Ryan should make an early exit.

And on Tuesday, the state Republican chairman was more blunt about it. When asked if the incumbent could expect support from his own state party, Illinois GOP executive director Brad Goodrich paused at length, then spoke carefully about a campaign that, if it comes to pass, will almost certainly be brutal.

“Because of the affection so many of us hold for the governor and his family,” Goodrich said, “many hope he chooses not to put himself and his family through a difficult campaign.”

Despite an exceptionally good relationship with the state’s most powerful Democrat, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, and a knack for innovation praised by even his harshest critics, his once-promising administration has so foundered that Ryan is now considered among the most vulnerable of 13 Republican governors up for reelection in 2002.

The latest in an unbroken line of Republican governors stretching back to 1976, Ryan first served 10 years in the Illinois Legislature, two terms as lieutenant governor and two more as secretary of state when he won the governorship in 1998.

A stocky, white-haired father of six and grandfather to 13, the onetime high school football linebacker began immediately to demonstrate an independent streak that irked more conservative members of his party.

He argued for stricter gun-control rules and openly supported gay rights. He visited President Fidel Castro in Cuba and said the United States should lift its embargo against the island nation. To rebuild the state’s long-neglected infrastructure for $12 billion, he infuriated conservatives by raising taxes on alcohol and driver’s license fees to pay for it.

Then, early last year, in a move that made headlines across the country and overseas and prompted criticism from within his own party, he announced a moratorium on executions in the state’s prisons. He acted after the disclosure that at least 13 men sent to death row since 1977 were later exonerated. “The system,” he said, “is broken.”

But the political cost of such high-profile moves has been multiplied here by a corruption scandal that is little known outside the state but which continues to taint Ryan three years after it began.

During his tenure as secretary of state, some employees in the driver’s services division took to exchanging driver’s licenses, especially special truck driver’s licenses, for bribes. More than $170,000 in bribe money, federal prosecutors allege, was funneled into Ryan’s gubernatorial campaign fund.

Ryan himself has not been accused of wrongdoing, and he has denied any knowledge of the corruption or efforts to help fund his campaign with some of the profits. But for three years, every week has seemed to bring another twist in the saga and another story. His family, including his wife of 45 years, Lura Lynn, want him to walk away, insiders say.

The federal probe, dubbed Operation Safe Roads, has resulted in three dozen convictions or guilty pleas--including that of a close friend of Ryan’s--and even more indictments. And still it rolls on. In a recent Chicago Tribune poll, just 20% of respondents said Ryan deserved to be reelected.

“If he gets through the primary, he’ll beat any Democrat,” said L. Patrick Power, a former county GOP leader from the governor’s hometown and a supporter. “ . . . If it weren’t for this scandal, his name would be bandied about at the highest levels” of the party.