Right Pundits

The first post primary Illinois Senate poll finds Republican Mark Kirk with a 6 point edge over his democratic rival Alexi Giannoulias. The Illinois Senate race 2010 is one of the key matchups in this year’s elections for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that Illinois is President Obama’s home state.

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Once again I hate to overstate the obvious, but the Illinois Senate race is intriguing in so many ways. First and foremost the candidates are battling for Barack Obama’s former Senate seat (and yes, like Scott Brown said it is the people’s seat). But don’t think that that fact will be lost with GOP voters come general election time. What a major blow to the Obama machine to lose his once held seat to the Republicans.

Mark Kirk has declared that the Illinois Senate race is the “most important” race of 2010 in the country. Others have said that it’s the next Massachusetts. Illinois, like Massachusetts, is a heavily democratic stronghold and dems need to hold this seat to avoid a massacre in the 2010 general election. Although Il Senate polls right now show Kirk with a lead, democrats are relying heavily on their huge base and machine to pull out the victory.

Mark Kirk, who is currently serving in the House of Representatives, came through the republican primary relatively unscathed. He won by nearly 40 points with clear momentum on his side and a unified republican party behind him.

The Illinois democratic primary was a different story all together. Alexi Giannoulias won by only 5 points and has many asking questions about his past associations. Giannoulias, like Obama, has had dealings with the infamous Tony Rezko. Giannoulias is the Illinois State Treasurer, but before holding that office he worked at his family owned bank, Broadway Bank. The bank has been accused of dealing with mobsters as well as Tony Rezko (of course there isn’t much difference there).

Another negative for Alexi Giannoulias is the fact that he is deemed a part of the Illinois political machine. Disgraced governor Rod Blagojevich filled the vacant Obama seat with Roland Burris whose relationship with the Governor left him in no position to run for the seat. There is a huge voter backlash right now against all things democrat (even in Illinois) and the Blagojevich scandal has much to do with that. Giannoulias, who used to play basketball with Obama, will have a hard time convincing voters that he wasn’t created in the same mold as Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Rod Blagojevich.

Remember Illinois exit polls and election results will be included with the live election returns window to be included here.

Contributing authors: Frank, Shannon, McCain