By Gregory L. Giroux
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 22

Delegates: 24

Chairman: Gov. George Ryan

Hotel: Adam's Mark (215) 581-5000

1996 Election:
Clinton – 54%
Dole – 37%
Perot – 8%

The Illinois Republican convention delegation is so replete with party officials from all levels of government that ticking off the names is akin to the refrain to the popular holiday song, "Twelve Days of Christmas." The state's 74 delegates - all of whom are pledged to Texas Gov. George W. Bush - include 16 state representatives, 15 state senators, seven U.S. House members, two former governors and a U.S. senator.

That so many elected officials are Bush delegates is testimony to his strong institutional support in Illinois. "They were all behind Bush a year ago," said Illinois Republican National Committeeman Bob Kjellander, a delegate and vice chairman of the convention's Rules Committee. "Party unity, on the presidential [level], is stronger than I've ever seen it."

But Bush did not even have to rely on the party machinery to help him win the March 21 Illinois primary, as he clinched the nomination in the decisive primary battles a fortnight earlier.

Chairing the delegation is Gov. George Ryan, a 40-year political veteran who has had his ups and downs since his narrow victory in 1998 to succeed retired two-term Republican Gov. Jim Edgar.

Ryan made news when he led a delegation of Illinois businessmen to Cuba to encourage a loosening of U.S. trade restrictions on that long-isolated communist nation, and when he placed a moratorium on executions following cases in which Illinois death row inmates were exonerated by new evidence.

He also looked savvy during this year's Republican primary campaign in the 15th Congressional District, when he backed the winner, state Rep. Tim Johnson, over candidates favored by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and retiring 15th District Rep. Thomas W. Ewing.

However, Ryan also has had to deal with a federal investigation into the exchange of truck licenses for bribes to state officials during Ryan's tenure as Illinois secretary of state (1991-99). And the governor's relations with party conservatives have been strained: Ryan in June vetoed a bill that would have prohibited public funding of abortions for poor women whose health was endangered by the pregnancy.

Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald, who unseated Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun in 1998, is a delegate.

The delegation also includes seven of the 10 U.S. House Republicans from Illinois. The most prominent is 13-term Rep. Henry J. Hyde, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

Perhaps the Republican Party's most articulate opponent of abortion, Hyde chaired the platform committee in 1996 and defended the platform's call for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. In 1998, Hyde led the Judiciary Committee's hearings that sent articles of impeachment against President Clinton to the House floor, and served as a House prosecutor in Clinton's 1999 Senate impeachment trial.

Ewing and another retiring House Republican, John Edward Porter, are delegates. Hastert is not a delegate, but nonetheless has a high-profile role as the convention's permanent chairman. Rep. John Shimkus is not a delegate, but his mother Kathleen is.

Other well-known delegates include state Senate President James "Pate" Philip; state House Republican Leader Lee Daniels; and state Republican Chairman Rich Williamson, who lost to Moseley-Braun as the GOP Senate nominee in 1992.

On issues, said Kjellander, "We have a very diverse group." For example, abortion-rights supporters who are delegates include Edgar, Williamson and Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood. Abortion opponents joining Hyde include former state Rep. Maureen Murphy, whom Edgar maneuvered out of a spot on the convention platform committee in 1996.

The Republicans will be trying to bring Illinois, one of the nation's leading "swing" states, back to their column after losing badly to President Clinton in 1992 and 1996. At least this year, the GOP won't have to endure the opposing party parading on its turf: The 1996 convention that re-nominated Clinton was held in Chicago.

ILLINOIS NOTABLES: Gov. George Ryan, the delegation chairman; Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald; Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood; former Govs. Jim Edgar and James R. Thompson; U.S. Reps. Judy Biggert, Thomas W. Ewing (retiring), Henry J. Hyde, Ray LaHood, Donald Manzullo, John Edward Porter (retiring) and Jerry Weller; state Republican Chairman Rich Williamson; Lynn Martin, a former U.S. representative and former U.S. Labor secretary.