(Part of UPI's Special Report on Election 2002)
CHICAGO (UPI) -- At times, it's been hard to tell against whom Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan is running -- Democrat Rod Blagojevich or incumbent Illinois GOP Gov. George Ryan.
The two Ryans are not related but polls show voter confusion could be an issue Nov. 5.
Jim Ryan, 56, the state's attorney general for the past eight years, blames much of his polling trouble on the last name he shares with the incumbent governor, who was tarred by a driver's-licenses-for-bribes scandal that began while he was secretary of state.
Gov. Ryan, a gruff, affable, grandfatherly figure, was not indicted but the investigation ensnared dozens of his former employees and several members of his inner circle, including Dean Bauer, his childhood friend from Kankakee, Ill., who was the secretary of state's inspector general.
With the tar from the brush hitting "Ryan" Jim Ryan has gone so far as to put up election billboards urging voters to vote simply for "Jim."
The two Ryans don't see eye-to-eye on another issue -- the death penalty. In mid-October Illinois began reviewing death row cases, after a number of inmates were freed on new evidence.
"I'm glad I'm not the Ryan who put people on death row and left them there," the outgoing governor said recently.
Jim Ryan is taking criticism for his tenure as DuPage County state's attorney, during which he twice won convictions against Rolando Cruz for the 1983 murder of a 10-year-old Naperville girl. Cruz spent nearly 12 years on death row before he was cleared in 1995 in a third trial, one of 13 condemned inmates released from death row.
Jim Ryan opposes a blanket clemency for condemned prisoners under consideration by the governor, who says the state's capital punishment process is fundamentally flawed.
The candidate filed a lawsuit against the governor in the Illinois Supreme Court to halt unprecedented 15-minute clemency hearings for all 158 condemned inmates before the Prisoner Review Board. There hasn't been an execution in Illinois since the governor declared a moratorium in 2000, an act that earned the him international plaudits.
"If you believe the death penalty system should be reformed, and Rod certainly does, that last person to do that is Jim Ryan," said Doug Scofield, spokesman for the Democratic candidate.
It doesn't help that the GOP nominee, who has survived three bouts of cancer, is not exactly a spellbinding campaigner.
Then again, neither is Blagojevich, 45, the son-in-law of Chicago ward boss Dick Mell, who unexpectedly won a lackluster Democratic primary on the strength of downstate turnout. Both candidates have said they would wait until after the election before deciding how to tackle the state's tough budget woes.
A Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll showed Ryan badly trailing Blagojevich, 51 percent to 35 percent, with 11 percent undecided. But an Oct. 6 poll conducted for the Chicago Daily Southtown by New Jersey-based Scott Rasmussen Public Opinion Research found Ryan had narrowed the gap to 9.7 points, 49.3 percent to 39.6 percent. A poll conducted Oct. 7-9 for the St. Louis Post dispatch showed Blagojevich leading Ryan 47.5 percent to 36.6 percent, with an error margin of 3.5 percent. A similar Zogby poll published in September showed Blagojevich with 51 percent vs. 32 percent for Ryan.
Blagojevich made headlines last month when he admitted he tried marijuana twice as a young man but wasn't sure whether he inhaled. For the record, Ryan said he has never used any illegal drug.
A Democrat last won election to the executive mansion in 1972, but he wound up in prison on charges unrelated to his tenure as the state's chief executive.
Next month Democrats could sweep the statewide offices.
"I definitely think there is a generational piece to the campaign that we can benefit from," Blagojevich told the Tribune. "Young people bring an idealism, and we haven't had a leader of my generation in the Illinois governor's office yet."
Blagojevich can outspend Ryan, having raised about $12 million to Ryan's $9 million. He ran far more television ads before the Ryan campaign responded with a 30-second spot touting Ryan's personal courage in overcoming personal tragedies.
Ryan needs help but turned down an offer by the governor to campaign for him and asked George Ryan to resign. The governor refused and called the attorney general "a lousy candidate."
"This campaign is between Rod Blagojevich and me, not between Governor Ryan and me," Ryan said.
