Illinois Governor Won’t Seek a Second Term

Illinois Gov. George Ryan, hobbled by a years-old bribery scandal, announced Wednesday he would not seek a second term, a move that state Republican leaders hope will help their chances of keeping control of governorships nationwide in the next few years.

The 67-year-old Ryan, who never lost a race in 35 years of nonstop political activity but whose approval ratings have plummeted, made the announcement at what initially appeared to be a campaign rally in his hometown of Kankakee, 60 miles south of Chicago.

Never accused of wrongdoing himself, Ryan has nonetheless been tainted by an ongoing bribery probe, called Operation Safe Roads, which has led to 41 indictments and three dozen convictions or guilty pleas.

He broke the news that he would not run in 2002 only after state Republican leaders, family members and then he himself touted his gubernatorial accomplishments for nearly an hour before a crowd of supporters.

“I worry for the Republican Party,” the moderate Ryan said just before announcing his departure from politics. “If we’re to be successful, we need to listen more and shout less. We need to moderate our positions.”

Republicans currently hold 29 governorships to Democrats’ 19, with Maine and Minnesota having independent governors. Over the next two years, however, Republicans will have to defend 25 of those positions, while Democrats must protect just 11.

That challenge has become a growing concern at the Republican National Committee, which also is seeking to retake control of the U.S. Senate. Senate Democrats took the reins in May, after Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont bolted the Republican Party to become an independent.

Joined by his wife of 45 years, Lura Lynn Ryan, and some of their six children and 14 grandchildren, Ryan made the announcement from a stage set just two blocks from where he began his political career as a county board member.

He went on to serve 10 years in the state Senate, two terms as lieutenant governor and another two terms as secretary of state before becoming in 1998 the latest in an unbroken line of Republican governors in Illinois.

Ryan swiftly began irritating the more conservative members of his party by endorsing stricter gun-control laws, gay rights and a lifting of the U.S. embargo against Cuba. He also lost support when he placed a moratorium on executions in Illinois.

“We nearly executed innocent men, not once, but 13 times in this state,” he said Wednesday in defending the controversial move. “The death-penalty moratorium was, quite simply, the right thing to do.”

Although his moderate positions cost him clout among conservative Republicans, the main problem for his plummeting popularity was three years of scandal that emanated from his tenure as secretary of state.

During that time, federal prosecutors say, some of Ryan’s employees began exchanging driver’s licenses for bribes, especially special truck driver’s licenses. More than $170,000 in bribe money was funneled into Ryan’s gubernatorial campaign coffers.