What Are These Strange Nicknames

I tend to use nicknames that I think capture certain pols…

G-Rod–shamelessly stolen from the Capitol Fax, captures the Hot Rod nature of the Governor

G-Ry George Ryan
J-Ry Jim Ryan
Why? During the campaign last year, Jim Ryan kept trying to get newspapers to differentiate between the two of them so he wouldn’t be tarred with George’s scandals. Ultimately, it was an excuse for what was one of the worst run campaigns in Illinois history–I would argue worse than Dawn Clark Netsch’s given that Jim Ryan actually was in the race at soem time. Probably not worse than Chris Lauzen’s Comptroller race, but Lauzen started out with less to work with–namely Chris Lauzen. Anyway, Jim Ryan was trying to get referred to as JRyan–I thought this was awfully diva like and thought something like J-Lo was more appropriate.

Da Speaker–big heavyweight Speaker of the Illinois House from the south side–very thin in reality and if not much of a kidder or talker–adds to the ironic nature of the nickname.

Four Tops–Traditional name of the four legislative leaders of the Illinois Lege–have an incredible amount of control over campaign cash minus some minor reforms in the Republican Caucuses this last time.