In Illinois, the GOP Sends an SOS

After years of financial woes and fallen politicians, the state Republican Party in Illinois had hoped that the race to fill the open U.S. Senate seat would be its first step toward a scandal-free future.

Now, less than four months before the federal election, the party itself is struggling not to fall apart.

In a state where politics and controversy often go hand in hand, the race to fill the open seat held by Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald has unleashed months of nasty debates over personal morals and messy divorces. But the latest chapter has thrown the already battered state party into chaos.

Last month, embattled Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan withdrew from the race after divorce records detailed allegations that he took his former wife to sex clubs and tried to get her to perform sex acts in front of others.

The eventual Republican candidate will face a formidable opponent in Democrat Barack Obama in one of a handful of races that could shift control of the U.S. Senate. Obama, a Harvard-educated civil rights attorney who represents Chicago’s South Side in the state Senate, has raised $4 million in campaign contributions in the last three months.

He is an African American seeking a seat in a body that has none among its 100 members.

On Friday, Andrea Grubb Bathwell, a Chicago-area physician who has been deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington since 2002 but is politically unknown, announced she was resigning to seek the nomination. She too is African American.

On Thursday, Republican state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger said that he would accept the party’s nomination.

Internally, party members say the mood is grim. That mood has only gotten worse since word began spreading last week of a growing grass-roots effort to circumnavigate the party and woo former Chicago Bears coach Mike Dikta onto the ballot.

Officials for Dikta said he had received many e-mails and calls, and was flattered by the idea. The sports broadcaster and restaurateur has spoken at numerous Republican rallies and is a supporter of President Bush.

However, in order for Ditka to run, he probably would have to give up his multimillion-dollar endorsement deals.

On Friday, Dikta declined to comment further.

That Dikta’s name is even being bandied about shows what a “low point we’re at,” said Doug Ibendahl, head of the Republican Young Professionals, a statewide grass-roots organization. “It’s such a circus, I don’t even know where to start.”

Such controversy dates back several years, when a federal investigation began examining allegations of political corruption in the office of then-Gov. George Ryan, a Republican.

That investigation, which initially examined allegations of bribes paid for driver’s licenses, came after an unqualified trucker was involved in an accident that killed six children.

As a result, dozens of people were indicted. Ryan, no relation to Jack Ryan, decided not to run for the governorship in 2002. That year, the party lost the governorship and many other state offices.

Ryan faces racketeering conspiracy charges, as well as several corruption counts, including taking gifts and money in exchange for government contracts.

“One of the key problems is that, with the George Ryan scandal, the state party lost its core sources of power. And it hadn’t cultivated a farm team that it could turn to for the future,” said Kent Redfield, associate director of the Institute for Legislative Studies at the University of Illinois in Springfield.

Many Republicans saw Jack Ryan as the prime example of the party’s future. Attractive, rich and well-educated, Ryan was a former investment banker who had left the financial world to become an inner-city teacher.

He won a competitive eight-person primary race in March. But even then, rumors leaked that Ryan had marital troubles to hide.

“Now you are looking at a party with wall-to-wall problems,” Redfield said.

“It’s not just an image problem,” he said. “The Republicans will likely lose a lot of the moderate and independent voters, who will shy away from a party with such a reputation.”

The Republican State Central Committee, which will name Ryan’s replacement, is scheduled to meet this week. In the meantime, investigators have started background checks into potential candidates, said state party spokesman Jason Gerwig.

One name on that list is millionaire dairy owner Jim Oberweis. Though he finished second behind Jack Ryan in the primary, Oberweis annoyed many fellow Republicans by repeatedly shifting his position on abortion and other issues.

“We cannot afford in-party struggles at this point,” said Oberweis, 58. “It’s going to take a lot of fundraising to even compete in this race, and we don’t have time to be sitting around bickering about stuff.”