The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has a new ad in the Illinois Senate race, attacking Republican Congressman Mark Kirk for being out of touch on unemployment.
“We’ve heard a lot about Mark Kirk’s problems lately,” the announcer says, referring to Kirk’s past misstatements about his military record. “But Kirk doesn’t know much about ours.
“On unemployment, Kirk said, ‘I’ve heard very little…I have a very high-income district.’ And he voted six times against extending benefits for laid-off workers, and five times to block increasing the minimum wage — while voting to raise his own pay six times.”
The ad refers to a Roll Call article from June 2008, a time when unemployment was going up and the economy was in a recession. At the time, Kirk had joined other Republicans in blocking an extension of unemployment benefits.
The TPM Poll Average gives Kirk a narrow edge of 41.3%-40.0% over Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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