Kirk Now the Frontrunner

The race for President Obama's old Senate seat is officially Mark Kirk's to lose. Kirk outraised Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias by $1 million during the first quarter of this year.

The race is officially Mark Kirk's to lose.  As I predicted last week, Mark Kirk outraised Alexi Giannoulias significantly in the first quarter.  Tuesday, Giannoulias finally revealed that he raised only $1.2 million during the first quarter, a clean $1,000,000 less than Kirk raised during that same period.

Kirk's rising poll numbers coupled with the fact that Kirk outraised Giannoulias by such a large margin in the first quarter should encourage even more money to flood into the campaign as Republicans start to truly believe that a Kirk win could happen.

Giannoulias, on the other hand, faces an uphill climb. With his family's bank teetering on the brink of disaster, his ties to disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich, his bad loans, and now, his money deficit, donors are likely to be more reluctant to spend money on a campaign that increasingly looks headed for disaster.