Democrats across the country are watching Illinois as the race for U.S. Senate between Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk comes to an end tonight. A win by Giannoulias would likely mean a continued majority for Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
The Drudge Report has listed incomplete exit polling results from
Illinois' U.S. Senate race. According to the conservative website, U.S.
Rep. Mark Kirk is holding a six point lead over State Treasurer Alexi
Giannoulias.
These numbers should be taken with a heavy grain of salt, as Nate Silver explains here.
A poll finds that both GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady and Republican U.S.
Senate nominee Mark Kirk are leading their Democratic rivals by a small
margin one day before the 2010 elections.
Immigration reform advocates in Illinois are none too pleased with U.S.
Senate candidate Mark Kirk. The Republican nominee admitted again during
a debate last week that it's "not the time" to pass the DREAM Act,
which would provide upstanding undocumented children a pathway to
citizenship should they complete two years of college or military
service. Outside of his Chicago campaign office this morning, a series
of religious figures questioned why Kirk hasn't made any time to discuss
the issue with them over the past two years. "Request after request,"
says Lawrence Benito of Illinois Immigrant Action, "[and] no answer."
Watch it:
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk is lobbing a strange accusation at his Democratic
rival, Alexi Giannoulias. In a statement yesterday, the Republican
accused the state treasurer of exaggerating his role in last year's Hartmarx saga by claiming that he had threatened to sever an $8 billion
contract with Wells Fargo if the bank ultimately liquidated the
century-old clothier. Kirk points out that Wells acts
as the state's "money custodian" and only earns $96,000 for its work
overseeing Illinois' financial assets, which total roughly $8 billion.
But Giannoulias himself acknowledged last year that the "deposits they receive are not substantial." Watch it:
The threat worked, it should be said.
If Giannoulias was lying about the role he played in helping to save 600 Hartmarx jobs in Illinois, particularly the work he did in raising the profile of a liquidation process that could have been entirely overlooked without his assistance, why would the union who represents the Hartmarx workers support his campaign? Why would the Wall Street Journalwrite earlier this year that he's a "Hartmarx Hero?" And does Kirk seriously want to start bemoaning another pol for inflating his resume?
Alexi Giannoulias and Mark Kirk, the candidates running for U.S. Senate in Illinois, battled over both issues and character at the last debate of their campaign.
