* The Mark Kirk hearts Sara Palin story has prompted an editorial in today's Sun-Times entitled "Moving right might cost Kirk election"…
Rep. Mark Kirk has long been a voice of reason in Illinois. A moderate Republican with an independent streak, Kirk isn't known for pandering.
In our endorsement of Kirk for re-election last fall, we noted the North Shore congressman's efforts at bipartisanship, his knack for doing his homework and his penchant for speaking his mind.
But the edit board is dismayed by this Sarah Palin thing…
Whose endorsement is Kirk seeking in his bid to win a U.S. Senate seat? None other than Sarah Palin.
The same Sarah Palin he dismissed.
The same Sarah Palin who is so fiercely partisan it's hard to imagine her uttering the phrase bipartisan.
The same Sarah Palin whose history of failing to do her homework has earned her well-deserved ridicule.
And concludes…
For Kirk, courting conservatives may help him solidify a primary win; he is the presumed front-runner. But it also could easily cost him a general election win in Democrat-leaning Illinois.
Kirk built a successful political career by staying true to his values and beliefs.
Now is not the time to abandon them.
* The Tribune reports that Alexi Giannoulias is using the Palin story to raise cash…
Republican Rep. Mark Kirk created a stir by asking for help from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in his bid for the party's U.S. Senate nomination on Feb. 2. Now that quest for help has become fundraising fodder for one of the Democrats seeking the seat.
In an e-mail to supporters sent out today, the campaign manager for Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias said Kirk's request for Palin's help was an example of how "Republicans will do anything to get their hands on President Obama's former seat in the U.S. Senate."
Here's the entire fundraising e-mail, with all emphasis in the original…
We knew from the beginning of this campaign that Republicans will do anything to get their hands on President Obama's former seat in the U.S. Senate, but now we find out that the GOP wants Sarah Palin's help to win this race.
Yesterday, news broke that Congressman Mark Kirk, the Republican front-runner, penned a secret memo to Sarah Palin's camp asking that Palin help out Kirk in a "quick and decisive" way.
Palin has made no secret that she's willing to help out conservatives in their quest to damage the President. She was the leader in false rumors about the President's health care proposals, and she's made it clear she's willing to throw her support around to get conservatives elected from coast to coast.
Well, not here in Illinois.
We can't let Mark Kirk and Sarah Palin take us back to the failed, Republican policies that got us into this economic mess.
Donate $10, $20, or $50 today to help us keep the President's seat.
If Mark Kirk thinks bringing Sarah Palin to town will help distract from his record of consistently voting for big business and against Illinois families, he's wrong.
Donate $10, $20, or $50 and help us send a message to Mark Kirk and Sarah Palin Republicans that this seat will stay in Democratic hands.
Alexi is a progressive Democrat who will move our state and our nation forward.
And thanks to supporters like you, this campaign will be ready to take on Mark Kirk, Sarah Palin, and whomever else the GOP sends to this fight for the President's seat.
Thanks,
Tom Bowen
Campaign Manager
* Conservative Republican Patrick Hughes sent out a press release yesterday with new polling results, but no head-to-head numbers against Kirk…
A new Wilson Research analysis of polling data from the U.S. Senate campaigns of Mark Kirk and Patrick Hughes, respectively, indicates bad news for the Kirk campaign. This comes on the heels of news from Kirk's Senate campaign that he is seeking the endorsement of former Gov. Sarah Palin. […]
* The ideological background of the primary electorate appears to favor a candidate such as Patrick Hughes. Seven in ten respondents (69%) described themselves as ideologically conservative, compared to only a quarter (25%) of respondents describing themselves as ideologically moderate.
* The findings of the images and ballot of the Market Research Insight survey demonstrate that the race is competitive.
* In the survey, Congressman Kirk has a favorable to unfavorable ratio of 2.7:1. Patrick Hughes' favorable rating is much higher, at 9:1, but has far less name ID than the Congressman (64% for Kirk versus 24% for Hughes).
* I've run the other two major Democratic Senate candidates' responses to this Palin thing, but Cheryle Jackson has also chimed in…
"By openly soliciting Sarah Palin's blessing, Mark Kirk is showing Illinois his true colors," Jackson said in a statement. "Although he claims to be a moderate, Kirk is pandering to the extreme right wing of his party, and in so doing turning his back on the hard-working Illinois families who hope to change the way our government works and don't want to go back to the failed policies of the Bush Administration."
* MSNBC's First Read website had its own angle…
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is trying its best to squeeze every ounce out of the Mark Kirk-Sarah Palin story. […]
Now the DSCC has fired off this "memo" to Palin and Malek, which digs up unfavorable things Kirk had said about Palin:
To: Governor Sarah Palin
Cc: Congressman Mark Kirk
Cc: Fred Malek
From: Kathleen Strand, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign CommitteeDear Governor Palin,
Yesterday, following the purge of a moderate Republican in upstate New York and the devastating special election in NY-23, it was revealed that Congressman Mark Kirk is actively seeking your endorsement of his candidacy in the U.S. Senate race in Illinois. However, Mark Kirk has not had kind words to say about you in the past. Faced with a difficult re-election race in 2008, Kirk told reporters he "would have picked someone else" for Vice-President and that frankly he "didn't know whether you are qualified to be President." Now that Kirk is facing a tough primary challenge from the anti-Washington, anti-establishment candidate Patrick Hughes, he is suddenly racing to embrace you. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Mark Kirk but he is a politician who has a history of putting politics above principals, something you surely look down upon. Whether the issue is cap and trade, extending unemployment benefits, or health care reform, Kirk has either flip-flopped, been AWOL, or motivated purely by politics. On the other hand, Patrick Hughes is comfortable in his own skin as an extreme right-winger. Unlike the pro-abortion Kirk, Hughes is firmly pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and pro-gun…sounds like your type of Republican. I know you are in Milwaukee tomorrow and will be in our great state of Illinois later this month, both would be a perfect setting to give your blessing to one of these two candidates. With so much at stake in the next election, everyone wants to know — who will you endorse in our Senate race?
Discuss.
- posted by Rich Miller
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