Topinka to blame for Blagojevich's return

As far as I'm concerned, Rod Blagojevich was re-elected because Judy Baar Topinka dropped the ball. The whole thing began to go south when the Jack Ryan sex scandal broke and he withdrew from his 2004 bid for the U.S. Senate. Topinka was chairwoman of the Illinois Republican Party at the time and it was left up to her committee to select a replacement to run against Barack Obama.

Instead of selecting one of the people who ran against Ryan in the Republican primary, she and her group decided to import that nonresident nut, Alan Keyes, to run in Ryan's place. Up until then, I was a real fan of hers and voted for her all three times she ran for state treasurer. So, when she won the Republican primary and opposed Blagojevich in the 2006 general election, I thought about her great service as state treasurer, but thumbing her nose at everyone who voted in the senate primary two years before was too much to ignore. Based on her complicity in the Keyes selection, I couldn't bring myself to vote for her. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way. It's a shame, because look what we wound up with.

Len Brauer

Palatine