Ryan not running, but remains focus of race

CHICAGO -- Gov. George Ryan is taking a beating this election year, with campaign ads labeling him as corrupt, an insider and willing to say whatever it takes to win votes.

The strange part: Ryan isn't running for re-election, and the attack ads come from three fellow Republicans seeking to replace him.

The focus on the unpopular Ryan headed into the March 19 primary election shows how large of an issue the scandal-plagued incumbent is likely to be this fall, when Democrats try to end the Republican Party's 25-year hold on the Illinois governor's mansion.

"If leaders of his own party are attacking him in the primary, you can just increase that by an order of magnitude in the general election with the Democrats doing the lambasting," said Jim Nowlan, a former state lawmaker and political analyst.

Ryan announced in August that he would not seek a second term. The governor made a national name for himself by questioning the fairness of Illinois' death penalty system and imposing a moratorium on executions.

But his popularity plummeted amid a string of broken campaign promises and an ongoing federal investigation into the trading of driver's licenses for bribes in the secretary of state office that he ran before being elected governor in 1998.

Prosecutors say at least $170,000 of the bribe money ended up in Ryan's campaign fund. Ryan has not been charged with wrongdoing.

So far, the three Democrats running in the March 19 primary for governor have said little about the scandal, instead focusing on issues including the state's budget crisis and education funding. The Republicans, meanwhile, have spent much of their time explaining how different they are from the governor.

Conservative state Sen. Patrick O'Malley has been the most vocal and persistent critic. Painting himself as a reformer, O'Malley launched a television ad last month that shows a smiling Ryan with the word "corruption" emblazoned over his face.

"George Ryan represents what's worst about the Republican Party," O'Malley said. "We have to clean up our own house or the Democrats are going to do it for us."

O'Malley also has blasted Attorney General Jim Ryan, one of his opponents, for failing to investigate the license-for-bribes scandal during his eight years as the state's top law enforcement officer. Jim Ryan says it would have been irresponsible to infringe on a federal investigation.

The two-term attorney general is not related to the governor and is taking pains to keep his distance. On his yard signs, the name "Jim" dwarfs "Ryan."

He also has tried to link the third candidate in the race, Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood, to the governor. A recent campaign ad featured a black-and-white photo of Wood and the governor together, followed by the words, "Isn't it time we had a governor we can trust?"

"I'm not bashing the governor," said Ryan, who is far ahead of his two opponents in recent polls. "I'm talking about the facts, the spending by this administration and some other things that are legitimate to talk about."

Wood, a moderate, has made abortion rights the centerpiece of her campaign. She has run several commercials calling O'Malley and Jim Ryan "too extreme" because they oppose abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

But Wood also wasted little time trying to quash early speculation that she was the governor's favored candidate. She ran an ad in December boasting that she had rejected the governor's attempt to get her to run for another office.

"Recently, party insiders tried to pressure Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood to drop out of the race for governor," the ad said. "Corinne Wood's respectful answer to Gov. Ryan: No."

The outgoing governor is getting tired of the attention.

"I am frankly disappointed in all the candidates for not coming up with a positive proposal about why they want to be governor instead of why people should not like me," Ryan told reporters last week. "I am not a candidate."

But Nowlan said the governor should be prepared for more attacks this fall, as the Democratic nominee attempts to take advantage of a perceived weakness in the Republican Party.

"The old 'time for a change' campaign plank is going to be rolled out and nailed onto their platform, and it can be a compelling campaign appeal," Nowlan said.