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IL-Senate Campaign Mon Dec 21 2009
Isn't It More Important To Appeal To Liberals In A Blue State?
It seems Mark Kirk is ever-so-slightly in danger of being Scozzfavaed. The possibility, as Talking Points Memo's Christina Bellantoni reports is rather slim and the NRSC isn't taking it seriously but there are six weeks to go and anything could happen. Primaries aside, I'm still having serious trouble picturing a Republican nominee other than Kirk having any chance at all of winning Burris's senate seat, especially if he/she is farther to the right than Kirk. The argument that I'd always heard about Kirk's chances was that he was a staunch moderate with enough crossover appeal to take advantage of a year (like this one) where the Democrats weren't at their best. He could steal some moderate Democrats while the Democratic candidates bickered amongst themselves.
But it seems the right doesn't think being a moderate is so valuable: In a statement in response to Bellantoni's post the NRSC said:
"The reality is that with less than six weeks before the primary, Mark Kirk is in the driver's seat while the Democrats are in the midst of a very divisive primary that is forcing all of their candidates to the left," said the NRSC's Brian Walsh. "Good spin should at least have some basis in reality, and in this case what we're seeing from our Democrat friends is that in Illinois it clearly does not."
Moving farther to the left might indeed be a bad thing in other states, but in a state that hasn't gone red since 1988 (Illinois), I just don't see how that could possibly hurt a senate candidate. Hell, that was the case I'd been hearing for why Kirk was a threat. I think the real danger for Kirk is going farther to the right before he even gets the nomination.
