Six years ago, Illinois Republicans nominated Jack Ryan, an up-and-comer in the GOP, to run for the US Senate against a state Senator from Chicago. Ryan was considered a good bet to win the seat — until a divorce court unsealed the records of his split with actress Jeri Ryan and a series of embarrassing revelations put an end to his political career. End result: the state Senator from Chicago, Barack Obama, won the Senate seat.

Suddenly, it appears that karma has hit the Democrats in this year’s lieutenant governor campaign. CBS’ Chicago affiliate dug around into Cohen’s divorce and other court records after discovering his earlier arrest for holding a knife to an ex-girlfriend’s throat, and struck
gold. Click on the image to watch:

Didn’t anyone in the Democratic Party check this guy out? Mike Flannery discovered:

• Cohen’s brother sued him for $200,000 and won
• His ex-wife alleges that Cohen tried to choke her before they got married
• His ex-wife is suing him now for unpaid child support
• In the divorce, she claims that Cohen tried to force her to have sex

They did get the ex-wife to say on camera that Cohen “is a different guy now,” but she insists that her allegations are all true.

Stick around to the end of the clip, when Flannery and the host admit that they didn’t take Cohen seriously, and openly wonder “how could we have missed all of this?”  Hmmm … I wonder if party affiliation may have had something to do with it?