http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...386490,00.html
2 Black Candidates Vie to Challenge Obama
Wednesday August 4, 2004 9:01 PM
By MAURA KELLY LANNAN
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO (AP) - After weeks of searching for a U.S. Senate candidate, Illinois Republicans have narrowed their choice to two black politicians, a development that all but assures Illinois will produce the fifth black U.S. senator in history.
State party chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka said Republican leaders would interview Alan Keyes, a two-time presidential candidate, and Andrea Grubb Barthwell, a former deputy drug czar in the Bush administration, on Wednesday and then choose one to take on Barack Obama, a black state senator from Chicago and Democratic rising star.
Their choice would set up the first U.S. Senate election with two black candidates representing the major parties. Only four blacks have ever served in the U.S. Senate - and only two since Reconstruction: Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois.
GOP leaders picked Keyes and Barthwell after a daylong meeting Tuesday where they met with an eclectic group of more than a dozen potential candidates and settled on the ones they thought could best articulate the issues.
Republicans, who have struggled to find a replacement candidate since Jack Ryan dropped out over embarrassing sex-club allegations in his divorce records, said race wasn't their motivating factor in choosing Keyes and Barthwell.
``These two were selected because of their strengths, not because of their color,'' said state Sen. Dave Syverson, a member of the Republican State Central Committee. ``Voters are smarter than that. That clearly wasn't the intent.''
Neither candidate has deep political ties in Illinois. Keyes has never lived in the state and ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate twice from his home state of Maryland. He sought the presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000, and worked in the State Department for several years.
Under state law, Keyes would only have to take up residence by Election Day.
Barthwell, a physician from suburban Chicago, was deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy from 2002 until last month, when she quit to explore the Senate run.
Syverson said Keyes did not want to talk to reporters Tuesday night, and he could not immediately be reached for comment.
Barthwell said she did not think the committee made her a finalist because she is black.
``I don't think that this committee is playing any kind of race card here,'' she said. ``I think they have looked at the candidates and the strengths they can bring to it and how they position themselves on the issues.''
The candidates have sharply different political views.
Keyes opposes abortion and gay rights, wants to replace the income tax with a national sales tax, and calls affirmative action a ``government patronage program.'' Barthwell, a medical doctor, has a history of supporting Democratic politicians and has publicly opposed marijuana for medical uses in her role as deputy drug czar, but her positions on other key issues are largely unknown.
Republicans have suffered a string of disappointments since Ryan dropped his Senate bid. Party leaders repeatedly tried and failed to enlist a big-name candidate to run for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Peter Fitzgerald - former governors, state senators and Chicago Bears great Mike Ditka have all declined.
Whoever is chosen now will have just three months to raise cash and campaign against Obama, who has captured national media attention, raised more than $10 million, and gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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