* There is some chatter behind the scenes, but it doesn’t mean anything as long as Sen. Kirk is moving forward with his campaign. And he’s definitely doing that…
Pssst!
Sneed hears rumbles top Republican Party stalwarts are worried U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who suffered a massive stroke in 2012, may not have the energy to win re-election.
“The last race for the U.S. Senate seat between Kirk and Dem senatorial hopeful Alexi Giannoulias was a bruiser, and the next race will be heavily funded by the Democratic Party,” said a top GOP source. (U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. and attorney/former Urban League President Andrea Zopp have entered the Dem primary fray.)
Kirk, who had to learn how to walk again and has struggled with speech issues, has dealt recently with verbal gaffes, one of which required him to offer a one-line apology recently after he was caught on a hot microphone referring to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a bachelor, as a “bro with no ho.”
More recently, Kirk’s performance while questioning Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray at a Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee hearing was described as “disastrous” by a top Republican insider who asked not to be identified.
* From the Kirk campaign…
The Kirk For Senate campaign launched a new ad, titled “Headed to Trial”, in response to Rep. Duckworth’s second negative ad in just the last two months. The new video highlights Rep. Duckworth’s upcoming trial as the motive behind her torrent of negative advertising aimed at Senator Kirk.
“Next month, Rep. Duckworth and her taxpayer-paid legal team are scheduled to be in court facing charges that Duckworth violated the state ethics act by attempting to silence whistleblowers during her time as Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs,” said Kevin Artl, campaign manager for Kirk for Senate. “The launch of the negative ad by Rep. Duckworth is meant to distract the public from her own mounting legal troubles as yet another member of the Blagojevich administration is headed to trial.”
Background on the upcoming Duckworth Trial:
In 2009, two employees of the Anna Veterans Home sued Tammy Duckworth as an individual in Union County Circuit Court for violations of the State of Illinois Officials and Employees’ Ethics Act. Duckworth is accused of silencing a whistleblower, wrongful termination, humiliating an employee and approving inaccurate performance reviews that rendered the plaintiffs ineligible for bonuses or raises. The first pre-trial hearing of this case is set for August 4, 2015.
“Words have ceased to have meaning now that Mark Kirk has called another campaign ‘desperate.’ Let’s consider just the past week: in response to his over-the-top reaction to the Iran nuclear agreement, Kirk was called the ‘love child of Ted Cruz and Michele Bachman’ in one editorial and ‘a political loose cannon’ in another; a second prominent political handicapper moved the race to ‘Lean Democratic’ from ‘Toss-up;” and Republicans are now talking openly about his ‘disastrous’ campaign. I could go back further to his sexist and racially insensitive comments about a ‘bro with no ho’ and people ‘driving faster through’ African American neighborhoods, but you get the point. Senator Kirk’s campaign is in free fall, and no amount of misdirection can change the fact that Illinois families are tired of his reckless and obnoxious rhetoric.” — Matt McGrath, Democratic Party of Illinois spokesman
