Fire in Senate part of attempt to win back base

Illinois' U.S. Senate race officially launched Wednesday with a blaze of attacks just hours after Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias cleared their primary challenges.

"Just about everybody in Illinois is going to agree that we cannot afford Alexi Giannoulias," Kirk, a Highland Park congressman, railed to cheers at a Republican rally after rattling off accusations against the state treasurer.

Giannoulias, meanwhile, quickly tried to frame Kirk before voters as a Washington insider who caters to "special interests." Giannoulias' comments came during a news conference outside a shuttered General Electric plant in Cicero.

"This is how typical Washington politicians like Mark Kirk have sold out our jobs and fattened wallets of Wall Street CEOs," he said, accusing Kirk of supporting tax cuts that end up helping companies that ship jobs overseas.

The early salvos from the candidates Wednesday were clearly not only an attempt tear down their opponents, but also a means to unify their party following primaries that rubbed internal divisions raw on both sides.

Giannoulias cleared four challengers with 39 percent of the vote. It is a decisive win, but still more than half of primary voters picked a different candidate. During the campaign, the one-term officeholder withered under weeks of TV ad attacks on his character, judgment and associations

Giannoulias has taken heat for the loss of about $150 million in college savings funds under his control and the financial struggles of his family's Broadway Bank in Chicago.

Much of the same political ammunition fired repeatedly by Democratic opponent David Hoffman now is being discharged by Kirk and the Republicans as they view this Senate race as a chance to whittle down Democratic power in Congress' upper chamber.

The seat will be at the center of the corruption trial of Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who allegedly tried to sell an appointment to it and then caused a firestorm by installing Roland Burris after his arrest. Burris didn't seek election.

Hoffman landed 34 percent of the vote, but in conceding late Tuesday he pledged his full support to Giannoulias.

Giannoulias' challenge in the coming months will be to win back voters who questioned his suitability and backed his challengers.

Kirk, however, easily dispatched five underfunded and relatively unknown candidates with 57 percent of the vote. He spent relatively little cash in the race and even avoided a television debate with his rivals.

Still, elements of the Republican Party remain hesitant to embrace Kirk despite a universal dismissal of such talk from top officials Wednesday and a deep desire to put one of Illinois' two Senate seats in the GOP column.

"I think conservatives will overwhelmingly, virtually unanimously, support Mark Kirk for senator and be very proud of it," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, chair of the Republican Governors Association, before a speech to the Illinois GOP Wednesday morning.

Not so fast, say Hinsdale real estate developer Pat Hughes and former Harvey Alderman John Arrington, two of Kirk's challengers who attacked him as too liberal for the party. Hughes ran TV ads calling Kirk "Nancy Pelosi light" in reference to the Democratic House speaker.

Both Hughes and Arrington wouldn't say if they will vote for Kirk, who has taken heat in the party for supporting abortion rights, environmental regulation and gun control.

"The primary is still so fresh it is hard to say," said Hughes, who sunk about $250,000 of his own money into the race and garnered backing from conservative groups. "I think there is a lot of work to do."

Hughes, who pulled 19 percent of the vote, did allow, "Mark Kirk should be congratulated. He is a very tough opponent."

Arrington pointed to Kirk's stands on abortion and other social issues that make it difficult for some in the party to offer support.

"There are a lot of ... social conservatives that for them it is more than just politics. It has to do with morality. Religion plays a role," said Arrington, who pulled 3 percent of the vote.

But GOP bosses backed Kirk months before the race even began, perhaps sidelining a strong challenger with different positions on abortion, the environment and gun control. They are hoping Kirk can reprise the winning Republican strategy of former governors Jim Edgar and James Thompson, who won statewide despite some base conservative opposition by winning over independents and Democrats.

Kirk said that is his plan. He told Republicans Wednesday he will win on Nov. 2 with the same strategy he used to fend off well-funded Democratic challenges in his north suburban 10th District House seat.

"I will run this race the way I have run tough races for Congress, as a thoughtful, independent leader to rally a coalition of my fellow Republicans, independents and some Democrats," said Kirk, who is also a Naval Reserve officer.

Kirk is also eyeing a third-party challenge in the race as a potential boon to his bid.

Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones could "siphon" off Democratic votes, Kirk has said. As a young black teen, Jones was the focus of a Peabody-winning Public Radio documentary on his life growing up on Chicago's violent South Side.

The seat, formerly held by President Barack Obama, has been held by three of the only four blacks in the modern Senate. The lone black candidate in the Democratic primary, Cheryle Jackson, came in third Tuesday with 20 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, in a sign of his quest for party unity Wednesday, the five-term congressman reached out to his primary opponents to the cheers of a packed banquet hall in Chicago.

"They are not partisans," he said, calling them out by name. "They are patriots."