Kirk Bags a Conservative Endorsement
Mark Kirk secured his fourth endorsement from a prominent member of the Illinois GOP on Wednesday when freshman Congressman Aaron Schock announced he is endorsing Kirk’s bid for Barack Obama’s former Senate seat. As the article notes, Schock is considerably more conservative than Kirk. Schock’s decision to support Kirk in spite of the latter’s propensity for moderation suggests that at least some more traditional conservative Illinois Republicans understand that a primary battle which forces Kirk to run to the right will not help his attempt to take the President’s old Senate seat.
This realization may have in part been spurred by the trouble that Kirk has run into over his vocal opposition to the idea of selling the Thomson prison facility, an 8-year-old and mostly unused state penitentiary, to the federal government for the purpose of incarcerating suspected terrorists. Kirk was unusually outspoken in his criticism of the Democrats that supported the idea and the backlash was such that he has since been forced to tone down his rhetoric.
Despite the setback, Kirk’s remains ideally suited to take back the Senate seat. If he can secure the support of more conservative GOPers like Schock without having to appeal to them in a public primary battle against insurgent (and far more conservative) candidate Patrick Hughes, Kirk can lay low and prepare to take on a Democratic opponent that will no doubt have been weakened during the battle for the Democratic nomination.