Illinois Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, who was a rare Republican vote for a "cap and trade" climate change bill three months ago, says he would oppose the measure as a U.S. senator.
At a Republican rally last weekend in suburban DuPage County, Kirk drew boos from the crowd when he said he voted for the bill "because it was in the narrow interest of my congressional district."
After pausing to acknowledge the opposition, Kirk drew cheers when he said, "As your representative, representing the entire state of Illinois, I would vote 'no' on that bill coming up."
"And that's because we are a manufacturing, agriculture and coal state, and ... we need to build 50 new nuclear reactors in the United States. We need to drill offshore for American energy," Kirk said.
Kirk is in his fifth term representing Illinois' 10th District, a collection of mostly upscale and well-educated suburbs north of Chicago that have been trending Democratic. Kirk's electoral success in that district and his independent-minded voting record -- he was one of just eight Republicans who voted for the climate change bill when it narrowly passed the House in June -- are among the reasons he is the preferred candidate of national Republican officials in President Obama's home state.
But Kirk first needs to win a Republican primary next Feb. 2 that will be influenced by conservative activists who were angered by Kirk's vote. He has drawn a few challengers in the primary election, though none is well-known.
Democratic contenders for the Senate include state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson and former Chicago inspector general David Hoffman. Democratic appointee Roland W. Burris is not seeking election.
CQ Politics presently rates the Illinois Senate race as a Tossup.
To see how the 2010 Senate races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics' election map.
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Comments
This is pretty outrageous, quite frankly. He should be voting on this bill, up or down, on it's merits, not on which constituency he happens to represent at the time.
Posted by: NObama
| September 15, 2009 10:59 PM
Right. And he did that a few months back. Now, he has to tell his "base", read DuPage County, that he didn't mean that vote. That was then, my next vote will be what you want me to vote, when you get me back into office. My north shore areas aren't conservative anymore, they are going more progressive, Democratic. So you guys out west here need to work extra hard to get me into office to represent what you want from Washington.
Posted by: foster14
| September 16, 2009 9:01 AM
He was for it before he was against it?
Now if only there was video of him wind-surfing....
Posted by: terje
| September 16, 2009 10:22 AM
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