Progress Illinois

Last night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow aired a clip -- posted by Progress Illinois last week -- from GOP Rep. Mark Kirk's recent appearance on local radio in which he said, "I worry that unless properly structured, this is a bailout of the United Auto Workers, not General Motors."  Maddow went on to say that this "sounds like the worst kind of class warfare -- being fought against the blue collar class." Watch it:

As far as I can tell, we were the only website to excerpt Kirk's comments on the November 18 broadcast of WLS' Don Wade & Roma Morning Show.  So it seems safe to say Maddow's crew got the audio from PI.

On a related note, Rep. Luis Gutierrez had a great response to the Republican complaints about the UAW on WTTW's Chicago Tonight yesterday:

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Appearing on WTTW's Chicago Tonight yesterday, GOP Mark Kirk repeated his suggestion -- advanced by the conservative and mainstream media at the national level -- that the average General Motors worker makes $70-plus per hour.  Watch it:

In citing these figures, Kirk's underlying premise seems to be that GM's demise can be attributed to the greediness of its workers and the union that represents them.  Indeed, on local radio last week, he said this could end up being a "bailout of the United Auto Workers, not General Motors."  But the idea that individual workers at GM are paid substantially more than those at Toyota is bogus. 

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Like millions of Americans, Jaime Rios (right) of Waukegan cast his ballot today in the hope that new leadership in Washington D.C. will ultimately bring better jobs and health care. But for the 43-year-old landscaper, one particular issue really motivated him to vote: immigration reform.

The father of six has never lived with his children. They're in Mexico with their mother. As he cast a ballot for the first time since becoming a citizen one month ago, Rios worried that, without sufficient congressional support, the mountains of paperwork necessary to bring his family to America will simply collect dust.

"I voted not just for them," he added, "but for a lot of other people too."

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GOP Rep. Mark Kirk -- who hasn't released an internal poll since mid-September -- asserted yesterday that polls have shown him running "five to ten points ahead of my opponent the whole way through."  From CBS 2's report on the 10th Congressional District race:

The whole way through, huh?

We've been wondering whether Barack Obama was going to wade into the tight 10th Congressional District race.  And today we got our answer. 

Take a listen to Dan Seals' new radio ad:

Internal mp3

On October 21, Democratic candidate Dan Seals' congressional campaign dropped off 8,200 pieces of mail at the post office.  As is customary with political materials, the campaign had sleeved and red-tagged the delivery, which was subsequently transferred to a distribution facility in Palatine.  About a week later, they realized that the mail hadn't hit any mailboxes in the 10th District and made repeated calls to the post office.  On Wednesday, October 29, they learned what had happened.  From an email sent to Seals supporters today:

After realizing that supporters had not received the letter, we discovered that the mail had been set aside and out of sight at the post office. The letters were supposed to have been treated as first class mail. They were not.

Very strange. The sleeves and red tags had also been removed, according to the campaign. 

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In the first 15 days of October, Democratic challenger Dan Seals outpaced GOP Rep. Mark Kirk in fundraising by more than $100,000.  According to his "pre-general" Federal Election Commission filing, Seals raised $233,000 during this brief period, retaining $269,000 cash-on-hand. Meanwhile, Kirk raised $127,000 and was left with $885,000 cash-on-hand. 

Seals is also benefiting from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's huge, last-minute advertising buy in the district. The Swing State Project recently reported that, on October 28, the DCCC dropped $957,000 on the race.

Here's the latest evidence that political observers think GOP Rep. Mark Kirk is very, very vulnerable next Tuesday.  The Evans-Novak Political Report has moved the 10th Congressional District race from "Leaning Republican" to "Leaning Democratic."

From the Des Plaines Journal's endorsement of 10th Congressional District Democratic challenger Dan Seals:

During the grueling contest, the usually moderate and thoughtful [GOP Rep. Mark] Kirk has resorted to negative advertising to get his message out. He has also limited his availability to the public, we guess, having made the decision to rely on TV ads and mailings. This oftentimes happens when an incumbent fears that he might not be reelected. If Kirk is not engaged and responsive to his community while campaigning, it is unlikely he would do so while in office. If Seals becomes the next congressman, he would do well to remember that lesson.

The Journal endorsed Democratic challenger Jill Morgenthaler in the 6th District, citing "her fresh approach, sound, cool judgment, and worldly experience." 

Other endorsements of note this week: the SouthtownStar backed Democrat Debbie Halvorson in the 11th District and the Sun-Times voiced support for Republican incumbent Judy Biggert in the 13th.  We've updated our endorsement round-up accordingly.

When hundreds of thousands of Chicago residents took to the streets in 2006 to protest congressional efforts to criminalize illegal immigrants, they joined millions across the nation in pledging: "Today we march, tomorrow we vote."

Two years later, many of those same folks poised to deliver on that message.  At a pre-election rally on Chicago's Near West Side last night, motivated activists and volunteers geared up to move more than 100,000 immigrant voters to the polls on November 4.

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