Exit Polling: Kirk Losing Moderates
The Chicago Sun Times senate-kirk-giannoulias-110210.article">writes:
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias are waiting for returns to come in to find out which one of them will represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate.
Exit polling shows the race essentially tied, though Giannoulias’ side got some early good news: Moderates are breaking for him 51 percent to 42 percent, according to the exit polls.
African-Americans voted 94 percent to 3 percent for Giannoulias, according to the exit polls. White voters went 61 percent to 34 percent for Kirk, the polls showed.
Women broke for Giannoulias 49 percent to 46 percent. Men went for Kirk 49 percent to 45 percent, the polls found.
Voters under 40 went for Giannoulias; voters over 40 went for Kirk, the polls showed.
Both sides are watching the numbers of votes coming in from Chicago — Where Giannoulias is strongest — and the far suburbs and downstate, where Kirk dominates.
In 34 states around the country, candidates are likewise watching the returns, but Illinois could be the most important for one or two reasons.
The first is that Illinois’ new senator will be sworn in early, around Thanksgiving Day, to serve out the remainder of Barack Obama’s senate term. If Kirk wins, he could provide the 42nd vote to block bills the Democrats might try to pass in the lame duck session before the new senators — most of them expected to be Republicans — take office in January.
