EVE OF DESTRUCTION:

Both sides target Fitzgerald (LYNN SWEET, November 25, 2002, Chicago SUN-TIMES)

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) is looking around for someone to challenge Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), while former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) said she wants to reclaim the seat Fitzgerald won from her in 1998.

The 2004 Illinois Senate race is already packed with intrigue: Seven Democrats are considering the contest, while some Republicans are taking the unusual step of plotting to get rid of a sitting senator from their own party.

"I'm thinking about trying to make sure Peter has an opponent," LaHood told the Sun-Times. "I think we can do better than him." [...]

Fitzgerald has made himself a target of members of the Illinois GOP political establishment. He picked a fight with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), has lost some traditional GOP business support with his opposition to O'Hare Airport expansion and did little to help other Republicans in the general election.

"Republicans in Illinois can only win not with the support of Republicans, but with good-government Democrats," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald "hasn't done anything," said LaHood, of Downstate Peoria. LaHood said Andy McKenna, president of a Morton Grove firm, called him a week ago to discuss a possible challenge to Fitzgerald. Said McKenna, "I have not made a decision about being a candidate at this point."

What more could you ask than the Democrat establishment trying to defeat a black woman candidate and the GOP establishment trying to beat an incumbent Republican Senator? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 25, 2002 11:32 AM