They'd really do better to withdraw with dignity
Quote of note:
Keyes, a former radio talk-show host who would have to move to Illinois before election day on Nov. 2, previously criticized Hillary Clinton when she moved to New York to run for the U.S. Senate.
That damn Hillary again!
Keyes has never won an election, having been defeated in campaigns for the U.S. Senate in Maryland in 1988 and 1992. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president in 1996 and 2000.
REALLY unsuccessfully. I remember him whining about being left out of the debates in 1996.
Keyes has never won an election, having been defeated in campaigns for the U.S. Senate in Maryland in 1988 and 1992. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president in 1996 and 2000.
Illinois Republicans Pick Keyes in Senate Race
Wed Aug 4, 2004 11:56 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Republican leaders on Wednesday chose failed presidential candidate Alan Keyes to wage an uphill campaign against popular Democrat Barack Obama in the race for a Republican-held U.S. Senate seat.
Keyes, a former State Department official and conservative talk-show host who lives in Maryland, said he would consider the "serious offer" and make his decision about whether to accept on Sunday.
A replacement was needed after the Republican nominee, stockbroker-turned-teacher Jack Ryan, withdrew June 25 because of a sex scandal.
After two days of interviews of more than a dozen prospective candidates and hours of debate, the Republican party's 19-member central committee settled on the 53-year-old Keyes over Andrea Barthwell, the former deputy director of the White House drug czar's office.
After being named a finalist on Tuesday and spending a day in Chicago being interviewed, Keyes appeared uncertain.
"I think that a serious offer of this kind ... requires that I sit down and deliberate on what I can do ... for Illinois and the people of Illinois but also do for this country, and that's what I'll be thinking about," he told reporters.
