Brazen George & the Combine
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Kevin assumes that Republicans actually liked George Ryan and he is half-right. George Ryan ran as the most conservative Republican Gubernatorial candidate since at least 1972 (and I don’t even remember the ’72 candidate so don’t ask). He picked up some support from the wingnut faction of the party because of his role in killing the ERA years ago as Speaker of the House. He was also the first pro-life Republican Gubernatorial candidate who was pro-life since at least 1972 as well. On the other hand, his openness and overtures to gays and lesbians put the right wing on guard.
By the end of his administration the only people who liked him were death penalty opponents and those who directly owed him favors. Everyone running for office statewide except Judy Baar Topinka distanced themselves from him (oddly, she was the only winner). The beneficiaries of his patronage presumably still like them, but their lawyers have told them to shut up.
By the end of his term, conservatives in the Republican Party viewed him as a profligate spender (and he was), a Communie sympathizer for going to Cuba (actually he just understood what was good for agribidness), a soft on crime pinko of for the death penalty moratorium, a fricken’ evil bastard for the commutations, and a crook (and they are correct).
No Republican office holder is supporting any of this with the possible exception of Pate Philip, who to be pedantic, is no longer an office holder. Philip is implicated in the Fawell trial.
To a degree, these sort of shenanigans aren’t atypical in Illinois. Even between Republicans there have been disputes over last moment appointments by the outgoing Governor. Jim Edgar was criticized for a few in 1998. The person criticizing him?
George Ryan.
Ryan insisted it was his right.
Whether this is a continuing cycle is actually hard to tell. My sense is that Blagojevich won’t have the same leeway. Ryan was so brazen that many people just turned off the whole mess and stopped paying attention. Certainly some of it was that Republicans were losing almost all of their patronage positions, but the Party separated themselves from George so these were largely loyalty paybacks for him personally. In another group of appointees, some Democrats allied with Ryan were given positions as well.
It is always important to remember while there are two parties in Illinois, there is a large overlap of the two parties in the Combine–dealmakers in both parties who are happy to share the pork and patronage with members of the other party, as long as they get theirs. The come from all over the ideological spectrum and they have run the state largely since 1976 when Jim Thompson became governor. Many good things have happened during that time, but a great deal of scams have as well.
I would argue that often times elections in Illinois are the Combine versus reformers. Other times they are different flavors of the Combine. The Blagojevich-Jim Ryan election was probably an election between different flavors of the Combine. Blagojevich is showing some good signs of independence, but frankly, I don’t buy it.