http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?t...-senaterace.incAlan Keyes to accept GOP nomination, run against Obama
Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- Former presidential hopeful and talk-show host Alan Keyes has agreed to become Illinois Republicans' U.S. Senate candidate, according to a newspaper report.
Keyes planned to announce his decision to accept the GOP nomination at a public launch on Sunday, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times reported in Friday editions, citing unnamed Republican sources.
Bill Pascoe, a political adviser and Keyes friend, said Thursday he could not confirm that Keyes had accepted the nomination. "He thinks he owes it to them to take the time to deliberate," Pascoe said.
The committee asked Keyes to make the run late Wednesday after spending weeks searching for a replacement for primary winner Jack Ryan.
Keyes would face Barack Obama in the race for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican. Obama, a state senator making his first run for national office, gained prominence as a keynote speaker at last month's Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Keyes, a two-time presidential hopeful who also ran two failed U.S. Senate campaigns from his home state of Maryland, opposes abortion and gay rights, wants to replace the income tax with a national sales tax and calls affirmative action a "government patronage program."
The race would be the first U.S. Senate election with two black candidates representing the major parties and almost assure Illinois would produce the fifth black senator in history.
Keyes will have to establish residency in Illinois by Election Day, according to federal law.