1. - 10th Indy - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 12:58 pm:

   Yay. :)




2. - Abe Froman - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:03 pm:

   Game on.

   Once Kirk puts the “will he, wont’ he,” drama behind him, gets his focus and gets his team in place, he has the potential to be a very strong candidate and clearly has qualifications all over Alexi, Cheryl and Chris. Some of the hard right still need convincing (and some can never be convinced) but he’s proven clearly that he can attract independent and Democrat voters, which no other GOPer in Illinois seems capable of doing.




3. - Shore - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:14 pm:

   3 things Kirk has to do.

   1. Convince conservatives to hold their noses.

   2. convince general election voters it’s more in their interest to elect a Senator with experience that will be for them than a Senator without experience that will be for something else.

   3. Get this race as far away from Obama as possible the way he did against seals.




4. - 10th Indy - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:16 pm:

   4. And as close to blago as he can




5. - WOW - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:18 pm:

   That has never stopped Murphy from being in tight and heavy with the insurance industry and their money.




6. - Broadsword - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:20 pm:

   It will be fun to see how Kirk handles himself outside the 10th Congressional District. It’s going to be tougher than he thinks.

   Skeleton #1 in Matt Murphy’s closet: He’s a trial lawyer.

   That Al Salvi ambulance chaser ad from 1996 comes to mind for some reason… ;)




7. - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:32 pm:

   I haven’t been impressed with how he has reached this point. He will need to improve quite a bit.




8. - Watching closely - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:42 pm:

   I think Kirk has a big opportunity here. That said, he needs to quit playing games with his candidacy and start running a serious race. If the Dems nominate the treasurer, the general election would feature a thoughtful, pragmatic moderate with deep experience on national issues running against a good politician with deep pockets but a shallow background.

   Kirk needs to outwork every candidate in Senate history. Get back to basics - meet voters, townhall meetings, etc. If he tries to run this campaign with big ad buys alone, he’ll lose big. The Dems will dump endless sums of money into IL to protect this seat, but if Kirk goes all-in and makes his opponent look like a third tier option without a clue, this could be a shocker.




9. - Elephant Man - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:42 pm:

   Its nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. That light just happens to be the only hope the Republican party has to win this seat.

   Granted this has been a horrible execution the only people that care about it is the people reading this blog and some folks in DC. The average voter would prefer not hearing about elections for another 6 months.

   As some have noted Kirk needs to improve - well your about to see it. Once Kirk has a campaign running properly its very impressive: money, press and yes even a ground game.

   Most importantly, independent voters will start to identify with his experience and leadership skills.




10. - HoosierDaddy - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:45 pm:

    I think Broadsword nailed it regardig Murphy. His opponents will run some nasty anti-lawyer ads, and they really won’t have to reach his utter lack of experience. I hate anti-lawyer ads. But that’s just me!




11. - HoosierDaddy - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:46 pm:

    I need a spellchecker, too!




12. - Team America - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 1:56 pm:

    For anyone who doesn’t think Team Kirk knows what there are doing with respect to media savvy, consider how many times they have gotten press out of an announcement that there will be an announcement to announce something, soon. Maybe. Considering the media frenzy every time an “announcement” goes out, it seems Kirk will have little trouble moving his name recognition beyond the 10th District and reaching the rest of the state. Some here may sneer, but Kirk seems to have everyone on the edge waiting for him to speak. Not a bad kickoff to a statewide campaign.




13. - Rob_N - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:47 pm:

    To add to what TA said … Kirk’s already got his team mopping up the mess he made with Cillizza last week:

    Rich noted on Monday that, “the Washington Post broke the news that Mark Kirk wouldn’t run for US Senate. Apparently, Kirk was calling around to say he was out of the race…” (emph added)

    Yet today the Pioneer Press runs an article quoting GOP sources: “A trio of local political operatives said Friday afternoon that the Washington Post’s Internet report that Kirk, R-10th, has shied away from a the 2010 race for the U.S. Senate is wrong.” and “[Former Kirk chief of staff Doug] O’Brien said as soon as he saw the Fix report, he called a top gun in the office of a member of the Illinois delegation. ‘He has no idea where this story came from,’ O’Brien said.”

    Again, as Rich noted in his Monday blogpost, that Chris Cillizza report on the WaPo blog was only part true … and that’s the spin that Pioneer Press’ reporter hangs his hat on … ignoring the apparent fact that Kirk himself was calling around warning people he was out.

    In other words, it’s only half the story (the half that works in Kirk’s favor, as if he were some victim of a hit piece). It smacks of the same sort of headline-changing, quote-inserting conservative media antics Kirk’s team is known for and gets away with throughout the 10th CD.

    And I find it curious that Elk didn’t return the reporter’s call — keeps Kirk’s hands off the walk-back.




14. - Broadsword - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:48 pm:

    It’s not reassuring to see how the Kirk team flubbed the whole announcement thing, they should know better, having nine years of experience up to this. Doesn’t that seem odd? Once they get it off the ground, I’m sure it will tighten up.

    I think Murphy is already past the sell-by date, but we’ll see. He’s not instilled confidence in a lot of money people or political leaders with his almost still-born campaign.

    We’ll have to see if he can turn it around, but I’m not sure who he gets his advice from or why he has such a laid back approach to his own campaign.

    At this point he has some people on board looking to make money off it, but there’s none there.




15. - lake county democrat - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 2:52 pm:

    Actually I think Kirk has been brilliant in flying under the radar — he’s been in office for well over a decade and really, what is he identified with other than the generic “moderate Republican from a wealthy/educated district” tag. This race is too important to the GOP for them not to offer a lot of help, no matter how good (or mediocre) his political team is.




16. - 4 percent - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 4:03 pm:

    Wow. Bombshell for Matt Murphy. Looking at the website of McManus & Associates would make any business owner recoil in fear and think twice about supporting him. The website expresses relief that “Illinois is a liberal jurisdiction that provides excellent relief for injured workers” and then they use the old trial lawyer language about corporations who pollute, swindle employees, refuse to pay just claims, etc.

    Good luck trying to defend this to businesses in Illinois who are outraged at the high cost of the legal system and jackpot justice.




17. - reformer - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 4:53 pm:

    The ambulance chaser ad that Kustra ran against Salvi in the primary didn’t work. The trial lawyer won the primary in a big upset.




18. - Inish - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 6:23 pm:

    There have been lots of rumors around trouble in the Kirk household- no?
    This could be another Jack Ryan….




19. - Spock - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 6:37 pm:

    Is he a relative of Captain Kirk, by chance?




20. - Secretary to the Stars - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 6:48 pm:

    What does everyone make of Kirk shopping for a running mate in Rep. Jim WATSON!




21. - springfieldish - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 6:49 pm:

    Inish: His divorce was just finalized a month ago. But you can bet there will be no ‘Ryanesque’ bombshell’s in the paperwork. His ex-wife is also a hard-core Republican.




22. - Shoe dropping - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 8:26 pm:

    To springfieldish,

    It’s not the divorce that will likely cause the end of Rep. Kirk’s campaign. It’s Mr. Kirk’s ‘personal life’ that will be his undoing. Conservatives might eventually forgive him for his vote on cap and trade. However, ’social’ conservatives cannot never forgive him for his lifestyle. Now that he’s running for Senate, this stuff will come out. With no serious Republican running in the primary, my bet it will be at the same time of the Ryan fiasco. Hopefully, it’s not a choice between “the Greek God” (mafia) and “the Alan Keys Project” Part Deux. Rep. Kirk is certainly what the GOP needs in Illinois about we all know there’s a segment of the GOP base that have their litmus tests and they’ll fail him.




23. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 8:40 pm:

    Be still my heart.

    Lay off the divorce. Plenty of people have done it, and it ain’t nobody’s bidness but their own. My folks and pastor always told me malignant gossip was nasty.




24. - Jq public - Wednesday, Jul 15, 09 @ 9:35 pm:

    Come on people! Doesn’t character count?




25. - just sayin - Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:01 am:

    Is Cap’n Trade Kirk stalling on naming the kickoff location because he’s afraid of angry GOP protestors? Seems odd he gives all the details but that one.

    GOP will fail to win Obama’s old seat back and they’ll also lose the 10th Congressional seat, by a lot.

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