K Lo & Tim: One of the ironies of the Illinois Senate race is that the Dems dumped their candidate with a divorce problem before the primary–frontrunner Blair Hull was days away from winning the nomination when accusations that he abused his ex-wife destroyed his candidacy. Perhaps the GOP can pull a Torricelli-Lautenberg switcheroo, like New Jersey Dems did two years ago. The problem is that the White House was begging for a prominent Republican like Jim Edgar to get into the race soon after Sen. Fitzgerald announced his retirement, but Edgar and others declined. Illinois is one of several states–including Arkansas, Nevada, and North Dakota–where the GOP would have had a very good chance of victory in the fall with the right candidate, but failed to recruit one.