CHICAGO – Well-educated, articulate and glamorous-looking, Jack Ryan was considered the GOP’s best hope for reinvigorating an Illinois Republican Party demoralized by a corruption scandal and devastating 2002 election losses.
But those hopes were dashed in lurid fashion this week with the unsealing of divorce papers in which Ryan’s ex-wife, “Boston Public” actress Jeri Ryan, alleged that Ryan took her to swingers clubs and tried to get her to have sex with him while others watched.
“Just when you think that the Illinois Republican Party couldn’t get any lower, low and behold, we figure out a way to do that,” said Gary MacDougal, former party chairman.
Ryan has come under mounting pressure to drop out of the Senate race, and has gotten little support from party leaders.
At least one Republican congressman has asked him to withdraw, several major newspapers have called on him to step aside or questioned his honesty, and the late-night comics are snickering. (Jay Leno: “Jack Ryan, I’ve heard of going after the ‘swing vote,’ but this is ridiculous!”)
On Thursday, Ryan abruptly canceled a fund-raising trip to Washington, D.C. But spokeswoman Kelli Phiel declared: “Jack Ryan is in the race to stay.”
The court documents were released Monday after a California judge ordered them unsealed. In the papers, Jeri Ryan, the blond actress who played an alien in a skintight outfit in “Star Trek: Voyager,” said her husband took her on surprise trips to New Orleans, New York and Paris and insisted she go to sex clubs with him on each trip.
In court papers, the 44-year-old Harvard-educated Ryan disputed the allegations, saying, “We did go to one avant-garde nightclub in Paris which was more than either one of us felt comfortable with. We left and vowed never to return.”
In a radio interview early this week, Ryan said he would overcome the allegations.
“There’s no breaking of any laws,” he said. “There’s no breaking of any marriage laws. There’s no breaking of the Ten Commandments anywhere.” He also said: “I think if that’s the worst people can say about me in the heat of a difficult dispute, I think it speaks very well about my character.”
For his part, Ryan’s Democratic opponent in November, state Sen. Barack Obama, has avoided talking about the allegations, saying he wants to stick to the issues. Even before the GOP campaign took its embarrassing turn, Obama held a wide lead over Ryan for the Senate seat held by retiring Republican Peter Fitzgerald.
Illinois Republicans lost control of the governor’s office and nearly every statewide office two years ago in the wake of a corruption scandal involving then-Gov. George Ryan, who has since been indicted. He is not related to Jack Ryan.
“It’s too early to tell whether we can recover from it, but it’s not good,” said state Sen. Kirk Dillard, GOP chairman in heavily Republican DuPage County in Chicago’s suburbs.
“Allegations of sex clubs in Paris, New Orleans and New York do not play well in Quincy, Macomb, La Salle and Peru,” Dillard said. “I think their eyes roll when you talk about sex clubs.”
The allegations also hurt Ryan more because his base is conservative, family-oriented voters, Dillard said.
The Chicago Tribune and Chicago TV station WLS had sued to have the Ryans’ divorce papers unsealed after rumors about their contents began circulating during the March primary. The millionaire investment banker-turned-teacher and his ex-wife had fought the release, saying it would harm their 9-year-old son.
Many party leaders have said Ryan misled them for months in assuring them the documents contained nothing embarrassing.
The GOP cannot force Ryan off the ballot. But if he drops out before Aug. 27, the party can put up a new candidate. Among those mentioned: state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger and dairy owner Jim Oberweis, both of whom lost to Ryan in the primary, and former state Board of Education chairman Rod Gidwitz.
In a statement Monday, Jeri Ryan did not mention the allegations but said she considers Ryan a good man and a loving father.
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