Kirk Out: GOP Senate Contender Learns The Unemployed Vote, Too

When called upon to vote on extending unemployment benefits, US Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois), the leading contender for the GOP US Senate nomination somehow failed to oppose the “moral hazard” of state “handouts”.  Rather than play ideologue to the Illinois Rush Limbaugh audience  and vote against the benfits extension, Kirk ducked out of the vote altogether.

The decidedly un-Republican move comes during a run of double-digit unemployment in Illinois that undoubtedly has Kirk thinking twice about backing the free-market fundamentalism that proves so popular on AM radio, yet so wanting in the real world.

Kirk spokesman Eric Elk said the congressman issued a statement into the record that he  was “unavoidably detained” but would have voted for the jobless-benefit extension as he had in previous roll calls last year.

Regardless of the back-and-forth, the shots are a reminder of how important Kirk’s voting record and attendance is being tracked and will be put in play by Democrats—even well before the primary election. It’s also an indication that despite some unrest over Kirk among conservative Republicans, Democrats believe he will be the primary winner against at least a half-dozen GOP primary challengers trying to appeal to the party’s base.

One GOP Senate primary contender, Patrick Hughes, a Hinsdale developer, is holding a rally in downtown Hinsdale this evening. Hughes, a political newcomer, has been courting conservative voters as he tries to gain name recognition across Illinois.

Clout St: Kirk’s non-vote on jobless benefits extension leads to partisan political sniping.