User:HailFire/Sandbox/Illinois United States Senate election, 2004

Citing problems dealing with Republican state party leadership and family issues, then incumbent Sen. Peter Fitzgerald announced he would not run for reelection to the United States Senate. The contest for Fitzgerald's open seat eventually matched Democratic candidate Barack Obama against Republican nominee Alan Keyes, marking the first U.S. Senate race where the candidates of both major parties were African American. In the November general election, Obama won by a wide margin, receiving 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%.

Democratic primary

File:Barack Obama campaign logo.JPG

A campaign banner used by Obama supporters during his 2004 bid for the Senate.

In early polls leading up to the March 16, 2004 primary election, candidate Blair Hull enjoyed a substantial lead and widespread name recognition resulting from a well-financed advertisement effort. He contributed over $28 million of his personal wealth for the campaign. However, Hull was soon embroiled by allegations of domestic abuse. Challenger Barack Obama, an Illinois State Senator, won endorsements from four Illinois congressmen and former DNC chairman David Wilhelm, gradually increasing his name recognition among voters.

In the final weeks of the campaign, Obama's primary campaign gathered support from favorable media coverage and an effective advertising campaign designed by David Axelrod. The ads featured images of U.S. Senator Paul M. Simon and the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington; the support of Simon's daughter; and the endorsement of most of the state's major papers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. In the March primary, Obama won more support than the other six candidates combined, earning 52% of the vote, fueled by an overwhelming victory in Chicago.

Obama vs. Ryan

Obama was then matched against Jack Ryan, the winner of the Republican primary. Ryan campaigned in favor of across-the-board tax cuts, school choice, and tort reform, an effort to limit payout in medical malpractice lawsuits.

Ryan trailed Obama in early polls, with Obama opening up a twenty point lead after the media reported that Ryan had assigned Justin Warfel, a Ryan campaign worker, to track Obama's appearances. Warfel followed Obama's movements twenty four hours a day, recording everything Obama did in public on videotape. Warfel also heckled Obama by yelling questions at him in public. The tactic backfired when many people, including Ryan's supporters, criticized this activity. Ryan eventually withdrew Warfel but did not apologize.

As the campaign progressed, a lawsuit brought by the Chicago Tribune and ABC-owned station (WLS-TV) led to a California court's opening child custody files from Ryan's divorce with actress Jeri Ryan. In those files, she alleged that he had taken her to sex clubs in several cities, intending for them to have sex in public. Although the sensational nature made the revelations fodder for tabloid and television programs specializing in such stories, the files were also newsworthy because Ryan had insisted to Republican leaders that there was nothing damaging in them. As a result, many Republicans questioned Ryan's integrity following the release, and he dropped out of the race on June 25, 2004, leaving Obama without an opponent.

Republican nomination

Finding a replacement for Ryan proved challenging for the Illinois GOP, as a number of potential candidates, including former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka, declined to run. The state party's chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka eventually announced two possible replacements, both of whom were African-American: Alan Keyes, a former state department official and radio commentator from Maryland, and Andrea Barthwell, a former DEA official.

On August 1, 2004, Topinka notified Alan Keyes of the party's interest in his candidacy for the United States Senate. Keyes declined to give an answer and opted to consider the invitation with his family before making a decision.

The prospect of a Keyes candidacy was leaked to the press on August 2. Democrats were quick to point out that Keyes had placed a third in the 2000 Illinois presidential primary election with nine percent of the vote. In the 1996 Illinois presidential primary election, Keyes had placed fourth with four percent of the vote. Some observers contended that some of Keyes' positions could appeal to politically conservative voters in downstate Illinois. Republicans were quick to claim that Obama's support in the polls was "a mile wide and an inch deep," resulting mainly from name recognition after his speech at the Democratic convention, and that Keyes could generate the same name recognition in short order if enough funds were raised.

Selection of Alan Keyes

Keyes and retiring United States Senator Peter Fitzgerald greeted each other at a private reception minutes before the formal nomination acceptance rally on August 8, 2004.

On August 3, 2004 the Central Committee of the Illinois Republican Party convened a seven-hour summit at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago to interview potential nominees for the race. Over a dozen prospects were represented with the exception of Keyes. Two of the most prominent potential candidates were Kane County businessman James D. Oberweis and White House advisor Andrea Barthwell.

As the meeting adjourned, Topinka told a press conference that "We don't quite have white smoke yet, but we had a very spirited discussion." She announced that two finalists, Keyes and Barthwell, had been chosen. Neither had prior in-state political experience and Keyes resided in Maryland, not Illinois. Some Republicans objected strongly to a possible Barthwell candidacy, given a scandal in which she'd been accused of having "engaged in lewd and abusive behavior" against an employee.

On the morning of August 4, talk radio stations were flooded by calls about the choices. Some expressed frustration that the second place victor in the March primary election, Jim Oberweis, did not receive the nomination; many were unsatisfied with Keyes and Barthwell. Others welcomed the decision and expressed enthusiasm for the candidates. A second meeting was scheduled at the Union League Club for August 4 at the request of Illinois party leaders interested in Keyes' possible nomination.

Keyes flew from his Maryland home to Chicago to meet with the Central Committee of the Illinois Republican Party. He was greeted at the club by crowds chanting his name and raising signs that read, "Pro-Life, Pro-Marriage." Keyes told the press, "Well, I have come in response to, I think, a very strong effort on the part of the leadership in the state of Illinois to take advantage of what is a priceless opportunity, a priceless opportunity for the state and for the country that arises from the fact that the Democrats have nominated somebody who is a radical ideologue but who is an articulate spokesman for the positions that have been characteristic of the Democratic platform."

In March 2000, Keyes had denounced Hillary Clinton for campaigning for a United States Senate seat from New York where she had only recently established residence, "I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent people there, so I certainly wouldn't imitate it." However, when asked about the discomfort of some Republicans of his lacking state residency Keyes noted that he still opposed such a move but explained that the party had asked him to run under unusual circumstances created by the original nominee's withdrawal, "I do not take it for granted that it's a good idea to parachute into a state and go into a Senate race, so I think it has to be something where I would be convinced that that's not only consonant with federalism as I understand it, but that it's in the best interest of the state and of the nation and that's what it would have to be." Right-wing pundit Robert Novak defended Keyes against allegations of carpetbagging on the television show Crossfire on August 9, 2003 by asserting that Hillary Clinton was merely an opportunist whereas Keyes is a principled conservative.

Keyes spoke to the Central Committee of the Illinois Republican Party for over ninety minutes behind closed doors. Upon the conclusion of the August 4 summit, they offered Keyes the nomination as their candidate against Barack Obama. Keyes decided to announce whether he would accept the nomination on August 8 after consulting with his family. Keyes said, "I'm deeply honored, of course, and also deeply challenged by the offer that they have made that I should be the nominee of the Republican Party for the Senate of the United States. I also believe that the deep and serious and intense committed deliberations that have been made by the leadership in this party deserve from me also a deep and serious and committed deliberation about what ought to be my response." Speaking about the state Democrats and his possible entrance into the race Keyes said, "I think they have thrown down a gauntlet of national challenge to the Republican Party of the state of Illinois."

After much deliberation, Keyes was chosen, and he officially accepted the nomination on August 8, 2004. Keyes had gained much attention as a conservative firebrand in his unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1996 and 2000. The nomination was widely viewed as a victory for the more conservative wing of the party, and a loss for the more moderate Topinka.

On August 8, after worship services, discussions and a reception with party leaders, Keyes formally accepted the nomination among thousands of supporters at a banquet hall, crowds spilling into the parking lot, in Arlington Heights. Keyes entered the hall to the sounds of the Chicago Bulls theme, and promised to wage "a battle like this nation has never seen."

The Keyes family moved into a townhouse in the south Chicago suburb of Calumet City. Keyes immediately began to build his campaign, taking over the downtown Chicago North Clinton Avenue office of the Jack Ryan organization.

Obama vs. Keyes

Keyes, a conservative Republican running in Democratic Illinois, faced an uphill battle, especially because Obama had built up his name recognition and popularity across the state, and because Keyes had few ties to Illinois political leaders. During the time when Obama had no opponent, he had campaigned throughout the more conservative downstate regions that would have served as the base for the Republican nominee. A Marylander, Keyes had established legal residency in Calumet City, Illinois with the nomination, the only requirement to run for office. The Chicago Tribune in an editorial stated that "Mr. Keyes may have noticed a large body of water as he flew into O'Hare. That is called Lake Michigan."

Obama ran the most successful Senate campaign for a non-incumbent in 2004, and was so far ahead in polls that he soon began to campaign outside of Illinois in support of other Democratic candidates. He gave large sums of campaign funds to other candidates and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and sent many of his volunteers to work on other races, including that of now-Congresswoman Melissa Bean who defeated then-Congressman Phil Crane in that year's election. Obama and Keyes differed on many issues including school vouchers and tax cuts, both of which Keyes supported and Obama opposed.

Keyes campaign

2004 campaign logo

Seventeenth Amendment

During the first two weeks of the campaign, Keyes scheduled major national and local media interviews. His stances on several issues attracted widespread national media attention, in particular when he said that the 17th Constitutional Amendment, providing for the direct election of United States Senators, unfairly diminished the power of state legislatures.

Abortion

Keyes was also adamant in his characterization of abortion as a "genocide" of black Americans, citing statistics alluding to a decline in the black population of the United States across generations as a result of abortion, and the fact that abortion is performed statistically most often on black women.

Continuing the theme of abortion during his campaign, Keyes pointed to parallels between abortion and terrorism. Said Keyes: "What distinguishes the terrorist from the ordinary warrior is that the terrorist will consciously target innocent human life. What is done in the course of an abortion? ... Someone consciously targets innocent human life."

An August 17 Chicago Sun-Times article interpreted this statement as comparing doctors who performed abortions and women who received them to terrorists of the September 11, 2001 attacks. On a radio program, Keyes responded that this was a mischaracterization. He said he "never spoke of the women who have abortions or the physicians," and that his comment was instead directed toward the objectives behind abortion and terrorism. He explained his position was that the women "are themselves the victims" of an abortion industry that "gain[s] from the crisis of the woman and the death of the child."

Keyes frequently made his opponent the target of his anti-abortion rhetoric, by referring to Obama's stance on abortion as "the slaveholder's position." In an interview at his campaign headquarters in Chicago after the convention, Keyes described Obama as a "hard-line, academic, Marxist-socialist" who "voted for infanticide" because he had rejected the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

Crime

Keyes has spoken strongly in favor of capital punishment, saying that "without [the] death penalty for murder, we disregard life." He also supports harsher sentences for drug offenses, supported the verdict in the Amadou Diallo case in which the police officers who shot and killed Diallo were exonerated, and said that hate crime legislation was inappropriate because it "inappropriately punishes attitudes."

Mandatory service

During the Jim Ryan Symposium on Public Affairs on October 5, 2004, Keyes spoke before a crowd of approximately 300 students and faculty in the Dan and Ada Rice Center at Benedictine University. He offered his opinion that he favored requiring students to serve two-years of service to the country after high school—either in the community, diplomatically or militarily. He said, "I have always been in favor of universal service with exceptions."

Keyes comments

Vote for Obama a "mortal sin"

On October 31, two days before the election, headlines across the country reported Keyes as saying that to vote for Obama was a "mortal sin" and that he held "the wicked and evil position" when asked about Obama's appearance at a Catholic church.

Keyes' statements were made before a crowd of around 600 at Crusader Ministries International Church in Chicago. Keyes said:

"From the point of view of the things I deeply believe in to be right and necessary, Barack Obama is wrong and taking the wicked and evil position on every single one of them.

"And I would simply say to voters of faith and conscience—the Roman Catholics, the black Christians, the evangelicals—I don't see how anyone in good conscience can cast a vote for Barack Obama."

"...On all the key issues of conscience, he stands for the position that has been identified by the Catholic Church as objectively evil...Catholics who vote for him make themselves part of that evil, just as the folks in Germany who voted for the party that eventually led to the Holocaust."

Obama later told reporters that he had "no response to Mr. Keyes' apocalyptic, over-the-top statements... I think everyone's gotten accustomed to them." He also described Keyes's remarks as "histrionics," saying:

"That's sort of his schtick, and I don't think it's playing particularly well here in Illinois, and I suspect that after Tuesday [Election Day] he'll be taking his show on the road...At least, he didn't call me the Antichrist."

Media reports failed to clarify that Keyes was discussing the policy of the Roman Catholic Church. As Obama courted Catholic voters, Keyes reminded them of that specific church policy, which also holds that abortion is "evil" and allows no "diversity of opinion" on this point within the church.

"Christ would not vote for Barack Obama"

Keyes made some additional comments to indicate that Barack Obama's policies were inconsistent with the teachings of Christianity, and claimed that Jesus Christ would not vote for him. Specifically, he said, "Christ would not vote for Barack Obama, because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to behave." Responding to the charge, Obama said, "I'd like to know who Mr. Keyes' pollster was, because if I had the opportunity to speak to Jesus Christ, I'd be asking about something much more important than this Senate race."

Homosexuality as "selfish hedonism"

In an interview with Sirius OutQ, a radio station geared towards gays and lesbians, Keyes stated that homosexuality was "selfish hedonism". When asked if Vice President Dick Cheney's gay daughter Mary Cheney was a "selfish hedonist", he replied, "That goes by definition. Of course she is." Later, without being asked anything about his own family, he said, "If my daughter were a lesbian, I'd look at her and say, "That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism. I would also tell my daughter that it's a sin and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her deal with that sin."

At this point, Keyes knew his daughter, Maya Marcel-Keyes, was a lesbian. Maya had claimed that she and her parents got along all right, as long as she did not become active in LGBT events or discuss her sexual orientation. Following his campaign for Illinois Senate, Keyes evicted his daughter from his house due to the fact that she participated in a march protesting the inauguration of President George W. Bush.

Election results

2004 Senate Election Results

Name	Party	Votes	Percentage
Barack Obama	Democratic	3,524,702	70
Alan Keyes	Republican	1,371,882	27
Albert J. Franzen	Independent	79,481	2
Jerry Kohn	Libertarian	67,914	1

The Keyes-Obama race was one of the first to be called on Election Day, November 2, 2004.

A late entry in the race against media favorite Obama, Keyes failed to play catch-up to the popular Democrat. At the start of Keyes' candidacy in August, Keyes had 24% support in the polls. Polls taken prior to Keyes entering in the race had already predicted a landside victory for Obama, regardless of who his opponent was.

Obama's huge early lead, the general Democratic dominance of Illinois, and Keyes' controversial statements helped Obama win handily in the general election, receiving 70% of the popular vote to Keyes's 27%. Following the election, Keyes refused to call and congratulate Obama, as is election custom. Media reports claimed that Keyes also failed to concede the race to Obama.

Two days after the election, a radio interviewer asked Keyes whether he had conceded the race. Keyes replied, "Of course I've conceded the race. I mean, I gave my speech to that effect." The night of the election, television stations had aired live coverage of the Keyes concession speech.

On the radio program, Keyes explained that his refusal to congratulate Obama was "not anything personal," but was meant to make a statement against "extend[ing] false congratulations to the triumph of what we have declared to be across the line." He said that Obama's position on moral issues regarding life and the family had crossed that line. "I'm supposed to make a call that represents the congratulations toward the triumph of that which I believe ultimately stands for... a culture evil enough to destroy the very soul and heart of my country? I can't do this. And I will not make a false gesture," Keyes said.