At last year’s Pro-Life Pork Roast at Resurrection Center, I met Dan Sugrue. He was running for state representative against Kathy Ryg.

You see him giving his 2008 pitch.

That’s his daughter Vivian by his side. (Had I been quicker, I would have gotten a shot of a great leg hug.)

His was a pretty hopeless quest in the Year of Obama, I thought.

He ran the race and told me, when I met him and his wife Margo on Paul Caprio’s Family PAC cruise last Tuesday, he told me he was challenging Ryg again.

Sugrue told me that Ryg’s voting record would give her big time trouble this year.

In one of Illinois most wealthy counties, you see, Ryg voted for Governor Pat Quinn’s 50% income tax increase. There were other instances of poor representation that I didn’t jot down.

The boat was docked and emptying out when I saw Dan Sugrue. Usually, you can’t get me to take a posed photo, but it was late and dark. Here’s what Sugrue looks like now.

Had he known that Ryg was going to “retire,” as she announced today, his smile would have been broader.

She says she’s stepping down to head up Voices for Illinois Children.

I figure she’s quitting early because she knows she couldn’t get re-elected.

Since there is an open seat and next year looks like a Republican year, I would expect Sugrue to have GOP primary challengers. But, he will have a head start because of his campaign last year.

State Senator Pam Althoff (R-McHenry) praised Ryg in a Tribune article.