Andy McKenna Will Announce Bid for Governor This Week

UPDATED FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE 9:30 P.M.

Former Illinois Republican Chairman Andy McKenna is expected to announce he’s running for governor, with state Sen. Matt Murphy giving up his bid for the post to serve as McKenna’s running mate, sources familiar with the partnership said today.

McKenna’s move comes almost a month after his surprise announcement on Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair that he was giving up the party chairmanship he had held for four years. McKenna said leaving that volunteer post would give him “the freedom to be involved in primaries,” though he did not discuss a potential primary run for governor at that time. McKenna, a Chicago businessman who long lived on the North Shore, would join a race for the Republican governor nomination that includes state Sens. Bill Brady of Bloomington and Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom of Naperville, pundit and political operative Dan Proft of Chicago and transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski of Hinsdale.

McKenna, who this summer passed on a U.S. Senate run and backed North Shore Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, was not available for comment today. In 2004, McKenna finished fourth in a bid for the GOP Senate nomination with 15 percent of the vote.

Though he faced severe criticism over the GOP’s inability to win any statewide contests in 2006, McKenna remained a formidable fundraiser as party chairman. His ability to raise cash was one factor for making the run for governor in an exceedingly quick primary campaign. It also helped to persuade Murphy to switch to run for lieutenant governor, the sources said.

The sources, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak for the still-evolving campaign, said McKenna did not believe any of the current candidates had achieved a significant front-runner status. An announcement formalizing the campaign was expected within days, the sources said.

Murphy, an attorney elected to the Senate from Palatine in 2006, announced in June that he would seek the governor’s office and viewed his “newness” on the state’s political scene an asset for a GOP still feeling the effects of the scandals that sent former Gov. George Ryan to prison.

Murphy now finds himself among several candidates for the lieutenant governor nomination, but would stand to benefit from McKenna advertising. Murphy’s role now may be to try to bring together the long disparate elements of the state GOP that have problems with McKenna.

UPDATED:  7:51 p.m.

McKenna/Murphy

Former Illinois Republican party chairman Andy McKenna and State Sen. Matt Murphy(R-Palatine) are teaming up to form an unofficial ticket in the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Less than a month after abruptly resigning his post as head of the state GOP, McKenna will make a run for governor while Murphy will abandon his own gubernatorial bid to run for lieutenant governor alongside McKenna.

The two men met Wednesday to cement the deal,according to Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/16/andy-mckenna-former-state_n_289258.html

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Count on it.

Former Illinois GOP Chairman, who resigned this post suddently a couple of months ago, will announce this week he will be a GOP candidate for Illinois Governor. 

He’s got the money to do it.  Will that be enough?

More later.