Unless Kirk does something to cross them, my guess is he’ll face a very weak Democratic candidate.
The fix is in and with the right connections, you can buy a safe seat in IL. And its very hard to defeat an incumbent.
Some folks forget that with the GOP majority in DC at the time, the Combine’s designated Republican for the Senate back in 1996 was Bob Kustra, the bored Lt Governor (when Paul Simon, another Combiner, stepped down). Kustra, of course, got upended by anti-Combiner Al Salvi. The Combine then designated Dick Durbin, who was supposed to be the sacrificial lamb to Kustra, and we all know how that’s gone ever since.
Hell, remember even in 1998, the Combine was fine if Carol Moseley-Braun went down to the liberal RINO Combiner Loleta Didrickson, but the latter got upended by anti-Combiner Fitzgerald, and they pulled out all the stops to help ole Carol. If Fitzgerald hadn’t been independently wealthy, he’d not have been able to fight the Combine. He was the LAST honest and unbought statewide elected official.