I am not sure but I think, from what I could read of your post, that the difference is that in the governers race the Republican canadate is behind the effort to check signatures where in the Senate race it was the MA. election board which was behind the effort. Its bad publicity for the Republicans in that respect.
Locate the section where any evidence shows Jim Ryan himself was "behind" the effort to throw Skinner off the ballot. Indeed, SOME supporters of Jim Ryan were shown to be actively working to get Skinner of the ballot (mainly, the 14th WARD GOP, which is a very small Republican organizaiton in Illinois). But Jim Ryan himself seems to merely turn him back and quitely SUPPORT using state laws to kick Skinner off. And I like, the Libertarians were ALL FOR IT when Carla Howell supporting the efforts to kick Jack Robinson off.
In fact, it seems Howell was even a lot MORE vocal in her glee when Robinson was removed. Jim Ryan is not the type to run around gloating.