Politics

ELMHURST, Ill. (AP) ― Jim Oberweis last week asked two of his opponents to draw straws -- with the odds stacked in his favor -- to determine who would stay in the Republican race for governor and who would drop out.

Oberweis proposed that he, Ron Gidwitz and Bill Brady let chance decide who stays in the race. The losers would drop out and the winner would face front-runner Judy Baar Topinka.

Under Oberweis' proposal, presented to his opponents Thursday, he would have had 10 chances to pull the winning straw and the other two would each have gotten one chance, Oberweis campaign manager Joe Wiegand said Saturday.

"It just shows the kind of innovative free-market thinking Jim brings in," Wiegand said.

Brady and Gidwitz didn't see it that way.

"How could you take that seriously?" said Brady, a state senator from Bloomington.

Gidwitz spokeswoman Terri Hickey said, "I guess we've entered the silly phase of the campaign."

The campaigns said they never considered Oberweis' proposal.

The polls show Topinka, the three-term state treasurer, with a commanding lead in the polls. Oberweis runs a distant second, with Brady and Gidwitz far behind.

Oberweis has pushed for the other candidates -- particularly Brady, a fellow conservative -- to drop out so they won't split the anti-Topinka vote.

"Jim Oberweis understands this campaign isn't about him personally. It's about the forces for change in the Republican Party," Wiegand said.

He said Oberweis proposed the game of chance Thursday before the final televised debate of the GOP primary. The odds would have been stacked in Oberweis' favor because he's ahead in the polls, Wiegand said.

He argued that Brady and Gidwitz have absolutely no chance of winning the primary, so their slim odds of picking the winning straw were actually an improvement for them.

Wiegand said he supported Oberweis' idea "because his instincts are phenomenal."

"Letting Jim Oberweis be Jim Oberweis, from a campaign-management point of view, is one of the advantages we enjoy," Wiegand said.

Also Saturday, Gidwitz and Oberweis said coming up with enough money to take on the well-funded Gov. Rod Blagojevich might be a problem for Topinka but not for them. Both are wealthy businessmen.

Gidwitz, the former head of the Helene Curtis cosmetics company, said the Republican nominee will need money to counter an early attack by Blagojevich, who has about $15 million in his campaign fund.

"The guy that's got the money is going to define the candidate before he or she can define themselves," Gidwitz said at a St. Patrick's Day parade in Elmhurst. "Judy won't have any money."

"Money may be one of the challenges that she will have," agreed Oberweis, a dairy owner and investment manager. "I don't think that will be my biggest challenge."

Topinka spokesman Roger Germann called it "hogwash" to suggest Topinka would not have enough money to battle Blagojevich, especially since she has already won three statewide races.

Germann said the campaign expects money to come in after the primary, including from the Republican National Committee.

"She will definitely raise the money necessary to be successful in November," Germann said.

In a final push for voters, the Oberweis campaign said it began airing a statewide TV commercial that makes the most direct connection yet between Topinka and former Gov. George Ryan, who is awaiting the jury's verdict in his federal racketeering trial.

The commercial shows Topinka and Ryan dancing, saying he taught her "the pay-to-play polka." Topinka has been criticized for accepting campaign contributions from banks that do business with her state treasurer's office, but she has never been accused of any wrongdoing.

Oberweis campaign manager Joe Wiegand said the campaign was spending about $200,000 to air the commercial.

Germann called Oberweis' latest ad a "desperate attempt by a campaign that is losing ground quickly." And dancing with Ryan hardly means the two were close, he said.

"Who hasn't she polka'd with? She polkas with everyone. The polka is a fun dance," he said.

Blagojevich spoke at an anti-violence rally in Chicago but held no campaign events. His Democratic challenger, Edwin Eisendrath, left his Chicago base to visit downstate cities.

A final GOP candidate, Internet journalist Andy Martin, said he planned to attend an anti-war rally in Chicago.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)