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GOP's Kirk wins Obama's old seatFrom the NBC News political team Republican Mark Kirk is NBC's projected winner of the Illinois Senate race, snatching the seat that former Sen. Barack Obama held in Illinois. Kirk defeated Obama ally Alexi Giannoulias. Giannoulias struggled to overcome reports that his family's failed bank made loans to known criminals. The president and the first lady both made stops in the state to try to boost the Democrat. **SNIP** The victory for Kirk gives Republicans a net gain of five Senate seats so far tonight.

Buh Bye Foster Another Obamacare dembot.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010 GOP ahead in Illinois Republicans continue to lead the races for both Governor and Senator in Illinois, albeit by close margins. Mark Kirk is ahead of Alexi Giannoulias 46-42 for the state's open Senate seat and Bill Brady is ahead of Pat Quinn 45-40 for Governor. There are three main reasons Republicans are headed for big gains across the country this year and the Illinois races exemplify all three of them: -Independents are leaning strongly toward the GOP. Kirk leads Giannoulias 46-31 with them and Brady has a 45-27 advantage over Quinn with them. -Republican voters...

In 2010, the citizens of Illinois should send to the Capitol a senator who will bring expertise and independence. The candidate who fits that bill is Mark Kirk. Today the Tribune endorses Kirk, a Republican, for the U.S. Senate seat that Roland Burris soon vacates. To understand our verdict, watch Giannoulias and Kirk's appearance before us this week. You'll find the video at chicagotribune.com/senate. Judge each man's depth and preparedness for the job. Judge knowledge and scope. Judge accomplishment. Judge which candidate has a proven record of thoughtful independence — of bucking his party when the good of this nation...

At a get-out-the-vote gathering Sunday morning at a Bronzeville restaurant, Congressman Danny Davis responded to U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk's suggestion to Republican activists that voter integrity squads be on site for voting in Chicago's black neighborhoods, which tend to vote Democratic. "Rep. Kirk thinks something will happen to his vote in these neighborhoods," Davis said. "Well, I'm here to tell him he's not getting any votes here. My question is why would he target areas that historically vote Democrat?" Vote drive Recently, without his knowledge, Kirk was caught on tape saying, "I have now funded the largest voter integrity...

Stufflebeam Endorses Michael Labno

Chicago election officials say crews will work overtime to reprogram thousands of electronic voting machines that mistakenly list a gubernatorial candidate's name as "Rich Whitey" instead of Rich Whitney. Chicago elections board chairman Langdon Neal said 530 machines being used for early voting and an additional 4,200 destined for the Nov. 2 election will be reprogrammed and retested. The mistake in the Green Party candidate's name appears on a review screen that allows voters to double-check their selections and not on the screen where the vote is registered. It also is not on paper ballots, Neal said. He said the...

According to the U.S. Justice Department, some counties in Illinois may have missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters as part of a new federal overseas voting law. At least one county has already admitted its military ballots were not mailed by the September deadline. St. Clair County Clerk Bob Delaney says absentee ballots to military personnel didn’t get mailed in time because they were waiting on a court decision as to whether the Constitution Party candidates would be on the ballot. Top Republicans, as expected, wasted no time flooding...

First lady Michelle Obama was introduced in the University Club’s Cathedral Room Wednesday to a standing ovation from the approximately 200 donors in attendance. She hugged Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, who stood behind her left shoulder as she delivered her speech. “I am thrilled to be back home in my home town, Chicago,” Obama said. “I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.”

This Saturday, September 18th, at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, an event called Right Nation 2010 will take place. This event is being billed as a "Unity Rally" by sponsors and supporters. The website for the event states, "Right Nation 2010 is a joint venture of Republican, conservative, libertarian, free market, and Tea Party independent organizations and individuals...Unifying the various elements of the base..." "I wholeheartedly support the Right Nation event and applaud Glenn Beck who has done much to unify and educate conservatives across our nation,” said Randy Stufflebeam, Constitution Party candidate for U.S. Senate. "However," added Stufflebeam,...

In a move that could burnish his credentials as a “moderate” Republican, Senate candidate Mark Kirk announced Friday that he supports President Obama’s choice of Elena Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court. "Under the Constitution, only the President can make this nomination and Solicitor General Kagan is one of the more careful nominees he could have picked,” Kirk said. Only two Republican senators have publicly declared so far that they are voting for Kagan. The vote will be over by the time Kirk would take his senate seat. But his announcement that he would support her makes it harder for...

The Illinois Senate race remains a virtual tie, but Republican Mark Kirk’s support appears to be trending down. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Illinois shows Democrat Alexi Giannoulias earning 40% support to Kirk’s 39%. Nine percent (9%) favor some other candidate in the race, and 12% are undecided. This is the first time Kirk’s support has ever fallen below the 40% mark. From February through June, he consistently attracted from 41% to 46% of the vote. This marks the first time since March, however, that the Democrat has risen out of the 30s. His support...

Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn and his Republican challenger Bill Brady are aggressively duking it out for governor of Illinois, but the numbers in the race aren’t moving. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Brady with 47% of the vote, while Quinn chalks up 36% support. Eight percent (8%) prefer some other candidate in the race, and 10% remain undecided. The numbers have scarcely budged since early March when Brady was declared the winner of the GOP Primary by 193 votes out of 750,000 cast. In the first Rasmussen Reports survey after the state...

There’s nothing quite so arrogant as an arrogant liberal occupying a position of power. Connecticut senate candidate Richard Blumenthal’s non-apologetic apology over his false claims to have served in Vietnam was a case point. Last week, another liberal Democrat, Illinois congressman Phil Hare (D -17) was in the news again, this time for allegedly threatening a constituent who called the congressman out over his fatuous claims of being a veteran. You may remember Phil Hare. He was filmed telling a constituent that he doesn’t worry about the Constitution. It was a stupid thing to say, but I’m inclined to give...

I have found evidence that may explain the intense interest of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in bailing out ShoreBank, the “community development” bank that has received extraordinary assistance from her and several other “friends in high places.” The New York Times confirms that Rep. Schakowsky played a leading role in the ShoreBank bailout. Yet ShoreBank is not based in Rep. Schakowsky’s congressional district, and she did not help the Bank of Lincolnwood–which is in her district, and failed in 2009–or Park National Bank, which was also active in community development in Chicago until it was closed by federal regulators last...

Scandal: Sometimes banks are too small to fail, such as when they are in the president's hometown, deal with the president's friends and serve the president's agenda. Or should we perhaps say too connected to fail? ShoreBank's Web site boasts: "Van Jones saves at ShoreBank so his money fights for green jobs just like he does." It proudly notes, "According to former Vice President Al Gore, 'Van Jones demonstrates conclusively that the best solutions for the survivability of our planet are also the best solutions for everyday Americans.' " That may tell us all we need to know about ShoreBank...

Former GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin impressed Illinois’ top Republicans willing to spend $500 to $25,000 at a fund-raiser for the state party Wednesday. “We talked about the situation in Illinois — the deficit, the high taxes, job creation,” said the party’s nominee for governor, State Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington. “I told her, ‘Your being here is helping rally the troops and get the message out.’” “She came in and was gracious enough to help us raise money,” said state Sen. Jim Durkin. “It was very low-key, no speeches. She just met with people and talked with them. She...

RUSH: So this guy running for the Senate, Mr. Kirk, has got to explain why he joined Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Giannoulias, you Democrats need to explain why you are siding against the American people, from the administration on down. Speaking of Elena Kagan, there's some incredible things about her in the news. This is from Investor's Business Daily. I know he needs to explain to voters how his family's bank failed and where the money went, but no he doesn't, because in Chicago everybody expects a Democrat to be corrupt. It's the stupid ones that get caught...

At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, President Obama drew applause when he mocked the conspiracy theory that he was born in Kenya. “It's been quite a year since I've spoken here last—lots of ups, lots of downs—except for my approval ratings, which have just gone down. But that's politics. Beside[s], I happen to know that my approval ratings are still very high in the country of my birth.” Birthers notwithstanding, Obama is facing embarrassing setbacks in both his actual birthplace state (Hawaii) and his adopted home (Illinois). In Hawaii, which is in the throes of a special election...

NBC Chicago: Following the collapse of his family's bank, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias said he has renewed vigor to win President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. The Democrat's voice cracked with emotion as he talked Friday about the collapse of Broadway Bank, which was heavy into real estate loans and lost $75 million last year. Giannoulias said nobody could have foreseen the real estate collapse.

HONOLULU (AP) -- Republicans believe they've seen this movie before: Campaign ads blanketing the airwaves. Money from national political parties flowing in. And polls showing their candidate virtually tied with the competition.

Broadway Bank, the family-owned lender that helped launch U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias' political career, was seized by government regulators Friday night, one of seven Illinois institutions taken over and sold to healthier companies. The failure of Chicago-based Broadway, which was unable to raise the $85 million it needed to remain independent, was anticipated, and its worsening health has weighed on Giannoulias' Democratic bid for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. The bank had been struggling in recent years with real estate loans gone bad, losing $75 million last year. Giannoulias worked for his father at Broadway before entering politics,...

He has been equivocal on the subject in the past, but tonight White House chief of staff and native Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel made no bones about it. He wants to be the mayor of Chicago. "I hope Mayor Daley seeks reelection. I will work and support him if he seeks reelection," Emanuel told Charlie Rose on the host's PBS talk show, in an interview to be broadcast at 11 p.m. "But if Mayor Daley doesn't, one day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago," Emanuel continued. "That's always been an aspiration of mine even when...

Rahm Emanuel admitted he wants to return home and run for mayor of Chicago some time in the near future. "I hope Mayor Daley seeks reelection. I will work and support him if he seeks reelection," the White House chief of staff told PBS's Charlie Rose in an interview. "But if Mayor Daley doesn't, one day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago." He added, "That's always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives." There were conflicting reports over the last few months about whether he actually wanted...

Democrat Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias's polling numbers have taken a hard hit since he won his party's Senate nomination two months ago. Giannoulias now trails GOP Rep. Mark Kirk by 4 points, lagging 33% to 37% according to a survey released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling. That's a 16-point reversal of fortune since the days before his state's February primary, when PPP showed Giannoulias leading Kirk, 42% to 34%. Excerpt.....more at site.

Barack Obama's old Senate seat in danger of turning Republican President Barack Obama's old Senate seat is increasing danger of being taken by a Republican after it was reported that the family bank of the Democratic candidate had lent $20 million (£13 million) to Chicago criminals. By Toby Harnden in Washington Published: 10:00PM BST 05 Apr 2010 President Barack Obama's old Senate seat is increasing danger of being taken by a Republican after it was reported that the family bank of the Democratic candidate had lent $20 million (£13 million) to Chicago criminals. The loss of the Illinois seat would...

The only Illinois Democrat in Congress to vote against Obamacare was on the phone. U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski — one of the few pro-life Democrats who didn't cave in to White House pressure — was explaining how it felt to be very much alone. "It was rather lonely, yes," Lipinski said of voting against President Barack Obama's federalized health care agenda. "But I could not vote for a bill that would change the status quo on funding for abortion." By voting "no," Lipinski has put a target on his back for smears from the White House staffed by the guys...

WASHINGTON, March 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Yesterday, Illinois became the 40th state where legislators have introduced, or will introduce, legislation modeled after the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act. Illinois House Bill 6842 prohibits a requirement to purchase health insurance and would provide the state with protection in a constitutional challenge of the federal health reform bill.

House incumbents rarely run behind challengers in polls. The reason is that the incumbent is at least somewhat well known, having appeared on the ballot and having won an election at least once, while the challenger in most cases is not well known at all. So it’s noteworthy when incumbents trail challengers in polls, as several House Democrats have this year.Tom Bevan of realclearpolitics.com highlights some Illinois polls by a hitherto unknown firm, We Ask America; Bevan interviewed the head of the firm and says he’s convinced the firm knows what it’s doing. The results are devastating. I’ve put the...

Small business owner and free market conservative Bobby Schilling (R) is gaining momentum against far left ObamaCare supporter Phil Hare (D) as outrage against the left's Constitution-trampling agenda continues to mount.

Broadway Bank, owned by U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias' family, was defrauded in an alleged check-kiting scheme by the owners of a popular Chicago restaurant, Boston Blackies. Nick Giannis and his son, Chris, are charged with stealing nearly $2 million. Chris posted bond and was released Friday from Cook County Jail. His father Nick remains jailed in Detroit. Alexi Giannoulias said Friday in a statement he was "shocked and appalled" at the arrests Thursday of principals in the Boston Blackies restaurant chain. Thirty-eight year-old suspects Chris Giannis and Andy Bakopoulos were picked up in Chicago while Blackies founder 62-year-old Nick...

A father and son who operated the Boston Blackie's burger restaurants were charged Thursday with ripping off nearly $1.9 million from two banks in a check-cashing scheme, and authorities said they arrested the father on the U.S. border as he was trying to enter Canada. The allegations caused a new round of political embarrassment for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose family owns Broadway Bank and has long known the father and son. The Blackie's operators are accused of writing bad checks from their accounts at Broadway to other banks as part of their alleged scheme....

Politics: Another bank failure is nothing new these days — except if the bank is run by the family of a U.S. Senate candidate who profited handsomely and lent millions to a convicted felon. But then, that's the Chicago way. 'I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." Speaking to those bankers, he said: "You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in — in decades,...

A taste of the RNC logic: National Republican Party fundraisers aren't putting much stock in Joe Walsh's campaign to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean in the suburban 8th District [Illinois], a spokesman said Thursday. ..."We're really focused on the seats where we see the clearest paths to victory," [National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Tom] Erickson said. "It's no secret these are the most competitive (races)." The RNC will find a reason at every turn to favor their candidate over a Tea-Party candidate. To whom should they be listening - their entrenched bureaucracy or the voters? We know what...

CHICAGO - More than a month after the election and all the votes in the republican primary for Illinois governor have finally been counted. The State Board of Elections has released the official results from the race, and the winner is Bill Brady. The board has certified that the state senator from Bloomington beat fellow senator Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale by 193 votes. Dillard has said he would only seek a recount if Brady won by 100 votes or less. Brady now faces Governor Quinn in November.

Campaign for Dillard issues the following News Release: (Chicago) – State Senator Kirk Dillard today threw his support behind State Senator Bill Brady in the race for Governor, saying it was “close,” but that Brady had won the Illinois Republican Primary. “I will help Senator Brady in any way I can to ensure the Republican Party wins back the Governor’s office in November,” Dillard said. Dillard had waited until the Illinois State Board of Elections had reported the final totals in the February 2 Primary election had been counted before conceding because of the narrow margin of Brady’s lead. “It...

In 2004, the Republican nominee for the open Illinois Senate seat, Jack Ryan, had to withdraw after having his divorce records exposed over the summer, revealing some rather exotic lifestyle choices. That left the Illinois GOP with only Alan Keyes in a carpetbagging bid to beat a junior state Senator making his second run at Capitol Hill for the Democrats … and we all know how that turned out for Illinois, and the nation. Now the shoe may be on the other foot, as the Democratic nominee admits that the feds may have to seize his family bank due to...

Relentlessly undermining the conservative movement in this state at every turn are a small handful of bought-and-paid-for liberal impostors at the very top of the GOP who openly work for the other side. These are the people who just illegally sabotaged conservative reformers across the state with an outrageous last-minute assault on the party election process (as I noted here). The very worst among them is Angelo Saviano (also, click here for Jack Dorgan).

The Republican State Central Committee in Illinois is instructing its County Chairmen to illegally stack the deck against Tea Party reformers in the March 3rd elections...

Will Sarah Palin play in Peoria? Except for a brief stop in Chicago to tape an Oprah Winfrey show last November, Palin's first public appearance in Illinois will be April 17 in Washington, a town of about 14,000 near Peoria. The local community center -- called Five Points Washington -- booked Palin for a speech and a dinner to raise money for a parking lot, youth scholarships and other projects. The 1,000 tickets sold out in a day. With VIP receptions thrown in, the center's gross -- according to my calculations -- should be about $235,000, minus Palin's fee, which...

So far, it's just talk — and there's good reason to think it never will amount to more than that. But some conservative Republicans indeed are chattering about the possibility of fielding a hard-right champion to run this fall as an independent or third-party candidate for the U.S. Senate against Republican nominee Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias. Fueling the talk is the fact that Mr. Kirk, a North Shore congressman who is considered a political moderate, got only about 56% of the vote in last week's GOP primary despite very strong backing from the Republican establishment. Given that, "Mark...

In a recent article in Pioneer Local http://www.pioneerlocal.com/westernsprings/news/2039124,western-springs-dillard-021110-s1.article state Sen. Kirk Dillard blames former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan for his possible loss in the Feb. 2nd Republican primary. The last all of us heard regarding the election results was state Sen. Bill Brady led Dillard by close to 500 votes in the gubernatorial race. But this being Illinois, us common folk haven't learned anything since, so what else is new? So, Dillard picks on Jim Ryan because such criticism would do the least harm to his political future. Though I didn't agree with the way Ryan conducted himself as...

SPRINGFIELD -- The GOP gubernatorial front-runner Wednesday proposed changing the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, make it more difficult to pass state tax increases, impose term limits on lawmakers and overhaul the process of redrawing legislative boundaries. "I'm trying to give the government back to the people," said Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), when asked what the package says about him as a candidate for governor. The same-sex marriage prohibition would prohibit gay marriages and civil unions. Brady is proposing a 10-year limit on Illinois House and Senate members, who face no constraints now, and a two-thirds vote requirement in...

Terrence O’Brien got his start in Chicago Democratic politics like so many of his peers and the generations that came before him, dutifully ringing doorbells to solicit votes for his state senator on the far North Side. He rose to coordinating other precinct captains for such candidates as a young Cook County state’s attorney and mayoral hopeful named Richard M. Daley. After serving some 20 years as an elected leader of the obscure-but-jobs-rich Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Mr. O’Brien decided last year that the time was ripe to seek higher office, to run for county board president. So he lined...

Why the emotional breakdown? Did I mention he's a democrat?

Democratic Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias kicks off his general election contest today at the Springfield home of Sen. Dick Durbin, who will be the chairman of Giannoulias' campaign. The selection of Springfield is strategic, since central and southern Illinois will be battlegrounds in the race between Giannoulias, the state treasurer, and the GOP Senate nominee, Rep. Mark Steven Kirk. Giannoulias lives on Chicago's Near North Side and Kirk's home is in north suburban Highland Park. Durbin, the No. 2 Senate leader, is the only statewide Illinois officeholder who lives outside the Chicago area. Raised in East St. Louis, Durbin is...

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin this morning joined the chorus of voices calling for Scott Lee Cohen to step aside, even as the embattled Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor gave no indication he plans to do so. “He really should spare himself, and his friends and family what he’s about to go through,” Durbin said this morning in Evanston, speaking to WBBM-AM (780). “I’m afraid the disclosures so far really disqualify him.” On Thursday, Gov. Quinn called for Cohen to step down if he couldn’t adequately explain an October 2005 domestic-battery arrest. also allegedly abused anabolic steroids, displayed fits of rage...

Since my earlier blogpost on the results of the February 2 Illinois primary, I’ve had the chance to crunch some more numbers, with help from the websites of the election boards of Chicago, suburban Cook County and the other 101 counties of Illinois. Here are the results in tabular form, with the number of votes cast for senator in the Republican and Democratic primaries. I’ve listed separately the results in Chicago, suburban Cook County, the Collar Counties and Downstate. The Collar Counties are DuPage, Kane (including the city of Aurora), Kendall, Lake and Will; returns from McHenry were unavailable and...

The newly minted Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor said Wednesday he doesn’t think a 2005 domestic battery arrest should hurt him in the fall general election, although records in the case raise questions about his version of events. Scott Lee Cohen, a pawnbroker who was the surprise winner in the little-publicized contest among half a dozen candidates, had previously disclosed the arrest. He described it Wednesday as an argument with his drunken girlfriend and said he didn’t lay a hand on her, though she called the police and had him taken into custody. But the official police and court records...

Illinois Senate Race Worries Democrats Anew BY MONICA DAVEY February 3, 2010 CHICAGO — Alexi Giannoulias, the treasurer of Illinois and a basketball-playing friend of President Obama’s, won the Democratic primary here on Tuesday for the Senate seat once held by Mr. Obama. But his victory was hardly the free throw some had expected, setting off a new round of worrying among Democrats that the reliably Democratic seat might be picked off by Republicans in November. With four others on the ballot, Mr. Giannoulias won 39 percent of the Democratic vote, or, as Republicans preferred to describe it on Wednesday,...