>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/15/04 12:39 AM >>>
Alas he is registered in Florida -- see that Michael H. -- and will not
run.
Michael Perelman
<<<<<>>>>>
hear ye hear ye: it's official (below story actually states he withdrew
from race that he never entered)...
although not necessarily for reason cited above, after all, he could do
what cheney did in 2000, declared residency had been texas during years
he was running halliburton, upon vp nomination, changed voter
registration back to wyoming from where he'd served in congress
(constitution requires prez and vp must be from different states) and
where he was still getting mail six months after taking office (piece of
consiracy michael moore missed)...
similarly, recall hillary clinton and bobby kenned in ny...
btw: there is some question as to whether or not ditka is registered in
florida, his wife is, she reportedly votes, he apparenty does not...
michael hoover
Former Football Coach Won't Run for Senate in Illinois
By STEPHEN KINZER
Published: July 15, 2004
CHICAGO, July 14 - Nothing may more vividly reflect the Republican
Party's difficulty finding a suitable candidate for the Senate here than
its flirtation this week with the former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka.
Mr. Ditka, who has made news with his enthusiastic drinking and
gambling, volcanic temper and support for public executions, withdrew
from the race Wednesday night after several days of flirtation.
"I don't know how I'd do on the Senate floor if I got in a confrontation
with someone I didn't appreciate or maybe didn't appreciate me," Mr.
Ditka said.
Mr. Ditka was not close to being the most outlandish possible Republican
candidate. Commentators here have half-seriously proposed Michael
Jordan, Ernie Banks, Cindy Crawford and Oprah Winfrey. None of these
figures have indicated any interest in the race. It is not even clear
that they are Republicans, and at least one of them, Mr. Jordan, has
contributed to the Obama campaign.
As the situation degenerates into the realm of comic opera, satirists
have begun suggesting fictional candidates. One proposed the cartoon
character Homer Simpson ("a resident of Springfield"), and another
suggested that deep-dish pepperoni pizza should get the nod ("diversity,
name recognition and immense popularity").
"I seriously doubt that the Republicans, even in their wildest dreams,
ever expected to be in this position," said Kent Redfield, a political
science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "The
chances of this turning into a national joke are very high. It will be a
three-ring circus."
Republican leaders are eager to do whatever possible to hold the seat of
Senator Peter G. Fitzgerald, who is retiring. On Tuesday, Senator George
Allen of Virginia, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Committee and
son of a former Washington Redskins coach, flew to Chicago to meet with
Mr. Ditka. The head of the Illinois Republican party, Judy Baar Topinka,
also attended.
On Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ditka, Mary Albright, said
he had not made up his mind. "He has some things he needs to sort out,"
she said.
Those may have included myriad business obligations. Mr. Ditka is a
motivational speaker, owns a steakhouse in Chicago, works as a sports
commentator and is about to introduce his own line of sportswear. He is
also a pitchman for Levitra, an anti-impotency drug.
Republicans have named a 19-member committee to review candidates. One
member, Dennis P. Wiggins, said that although there was no official
deadline for a decision, one could come this week. Statewide candidates
in Illinois generally win by appealing to independents, soccer moms and
suburbanites. Voters in those groups mighty not have been drawn to a
self-described ultraconservative with a supermacho image like Mr. Ditka.
Wisecracks about Mr. Ditka, many of them involving his work for Levitra,
began circulating several days ago and have become steadily more vulgar,
suggesting that late-night comics might have wound up being the greatest
beneficiaries of a Ditka candidacy.
Several other people who had been considered possible candidates for the
Republican nomination, among them State Senator Steve Rauschenberger and
a businessman who is a former chairman of the State Board of Education,
Ronald Gidwitz, took themselves out of consideration before Mr. Ditka's
name surfaced. Among those still interested are Andrea Grubb Barthwell,
who last week resigned as a deputy director in the Office of National
Drug Control Policy, and Jim Oberweis, who owns a chain of ice cream
parlors and finished second to Mr. Ryan in the March primary.
Mr. Ditka, 64, is not registered to vote in Illinois, but is registered
in Florida, where he owns a home.
Until Mr. Ditka's name was brought up a few days ago on a Web site that
was apparently started partly as a joke, Illinois Republican leaders
were insisting that they would carefully review the records of all
prospective candidates. They might have had to loosen their standards
for Mr. Ditka, who once paid a $20,000 fine to the National Football
League for grabbing his crotch during a game and shouting obscenities at
fans, and who was ejected from a New Orleans casino after, it was
reported, throwing his cigar at a pit boss. He was convicted of drunken
driving in 1985, but not before his lawyer set off a wave of applause in
the courtroom by asserting, "Mr. Ditka does not want anyone to believe
he got preferential treatment because his team is 9 and 0."
Mr. Ditka, who coached the Bears to victory in the 1985 Super Bowl,
turns up occasionally at Republican fund-raising events. At one in 1992
he said, "If the Clinton-Gore team was ever elected, it would be the
biggest step backward this country has taken in its 200 years of
existence." More recently he allowed that he was "not so sure that
public hangings don't have a place in society."
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