IL-Gov: Oberweis proposed game of chance to challenge Topinka

[quaoar]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060318oberweis,1,6643273.story?coll=chi-news-hed

By Carlos Sadovi and Liam Ford
Tribune staff reporters
Published March 18, 2006, 8:50 PM CST

At the end of a political campaign it's not uncommon for a candidate to grasp at straws, but Jim Oberweis literally proposed drawing straws to decide who should stay in the race for the Republican nomination for governor, two of his rivals said Saturday.

On the Democratic side, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) extended his feud with his son-in-law, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, by featuring primary challenger Edwin Eisendrath at a bingo game of senior citizens in the ward. But Mell stopped short of a formal endorsement.

As the GOP candidates for governor fanned out across the state on the final weekend of the campaign, contenders Bill Brady and Ron Gidwitz said Oberweis early last week proposed a game of chance to decide which of the three should stay in the race with front-runner Judy Baar Topinka. Brady and Gidwitz said the odds were heavily stacked in Oberweis' favor.

"He wanted 10 straws and Brady and I each would have one straw," Gidwitz said Saturday, before the Elmhurst St. Patrick's Day Parade. He said Oberweis wanted 10 straws "because he's the leader and because neither one of us is, in his mind, in contention."

[davidinalameda]

1. I've heard that Eisendrath has been running a horrible campaign