Simplify the following text for a Grade 13 native English-speaking person.
Original: Fine Gael , having gambled that former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald would run as its candidate ( even though he had insisted for two years that he would not run for office ) then approached another senior figure , Peter Barry , who had previously been willing to run but had run out of patience and was no longer interested .
Simplified: They gambled that former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald would run as its candidate ( but for two years he had been saying no ) , then they asked Peter Barry , who had previously been willing to run but had run out of patience and was no longer interested .