IL-Senate Campaign Tue Sep 15 2009

Kirk Wins The Battle But Stays Vulnerable For The War

Illinois Congresman Mark Kirk's explanation for his contradictory stance on climate change legislation is a good one but I don't think it's as good as some are saying. Basically, Kirk voted for a climate bill against the wishes of the Republican base because it was narrowly in favor in his district. He now says that if he's elected to the senate he'll go with the will of his party and vote against similar legislation. At the rally this little dance turned boos to cheers.

Meh. It was a pretty smooth move but now Alexi Giannoulias or whoever can easily turn this back around and paint Kirk as unreliable --who knows whose wishes he'll listen to next, especially as a senator over the overall liberal Illinois!

But I think there's a deeper problem here. The danger is that this campaign angle could work. Kirk could get elected thinking that as long as he pays close attention to public opinion and makes decisions with it in mind, he'll be a great politician. But crafting strong legislation takes a long time and requires a great deal of certainty by politicians for good policies to pass. In contrast, public opinion can (and often does) change in the blink of an eye. As I've said in the past, in theory it makes sense to pay attention to only their constituents in deciding what stance to take but in actuality that's not such a good idea. Public opinion is an incredibly undependable entity, good policy is not. Politicians need to be stubborn to a degree because even those who they represent will have doubts at moments.

If Kirk could somehow talk more about how he'll pay more attention to the actual policies that he needs to take a stance on as a senator and do it with the welfare of his constituents in mind then he'd really deserve cheers.

(Crossposted)

— Daniel Strauss / Comments (1)