I mean for heavens’ sake, Kirk is to the left of Chuck Percy, the former leftist RINO Senator. There were a number of Conservatives who voted for Paul Simon in ‘84 just to run that asshat out of office (much like how they did with Lieberman over Weicker in ‘88 in CT).
I honestly think that if Kirk gets in, we'll be wishing Burris was still there within a few months. Burris might be a socialist but at least he's low-key and has zero clout to enact anything.