The Fax on Potential Replacements

Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax has some scuttlebutt on

The name most mentioned yesterday as a possible Ryan replacement was Ron Gidwitz, a wealthy businessman and education reform crusader. Gidwitz has a lot of friends in the party, but he is not loved by Mayor Daley and the teachers’ unions, which he battled at the City Colleges of Chicago. Another name that popped up out of the blue is Jayne Thompson, the wife of the former governor, although nobody really knows if she’d even accept such an offer. Of course, there are also the other usual suspects, Jim Edgar, Jim Thompson (both of whom reportedly don’t want it), Judy Baar Topinka (doesn’t want it), Steve Rauschenberger (wants it, but lost the primary), Jim Oberweis (anti-illegal immigrant weirdness in the primary rules him out), etc.

While Dems first choice is for Ryan to stay in the race, Oberweis is a close second. He won’t even challenge Obama and frankly, those commercials were the funniest damn thing on TV. Flashback to Polis’ take on the helicopter commercials.