Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Kirk moves ahead

The last two months have not been good for Alexi Giannoulias, and Mark Kirk now leads him 37-33 in his bid to be the next Senator from Illinois.

A PPP survey taken a week and a half before the primary found Giannoulias up 42-34 on Kirk. But the closing stretch of the campaign did not go well for the Democratic nominee, with the attacks on him resulting in a final margin of victory that was a good deal less than what he had shown in earlier polls. Since then most of the news for him has been bad.

The main reason Giannoulias is behind is that he's getting only 54% of the Democratic vote while Kirk is winning 77% of the Republican vote. It's not that a lot of Democrats are planning to cross over and vote for Kirk, but 36% of them are undecided right now compared to just 16% of Republicans. That suggests Democratic voters don't really know what to make of Giannoulias' problems right now so they're just taking a wait and see approach to the race.

It's clear that the movement in Kirk's direction over the last two months has nothing to do with him and everything to do with Giannoulias. A majority of voters in the state have no opinion of Kirk and his favorability spread of 24/23 is almost identical to the 27/22 he sported in late January. Giannoulias has seen his favorability drop from 31% to 21% and his unfavorability increase from 19% to 28% in that period of time.

Also not helping Giannoulias is that President Obama is not nearly as popular in the state as he once was. 50% of voters approve of the job he's doing to 42% who disapprove. His 7% approval rating with home state Republicans is just as bad as it is with them nationally and his 81% standing with Democrat is about par for the course. He does continue to be more popular with independents in Illinois than he is in most states, with 51% of them approving of his job performance to 38% disapproving. Voters in the state express support for his health care plan by only a 46/43 margin.

The large mass of undecided Democrats are the critical bloc of voters in this race. If they come home to Giannoulias he'll probably still win- this continues to be a very Democratic state. But if they- unhappy with both Giannoulias and Pat Quinn- decide to just stay home or even worse to vote Republican Kirk has a pretty decent shot at winning this. There may not be a state in the country where Democrats have a weaker top of the ticket at this point than Quinn and Giannoulas.

Full results here

6 comments:

Christian Liberty said...

Intelligent Democrats would rather have Giannoulias step down given his connections to Broadway Bank and its clientèle in organized crime. But reportedly, Giannoulias has been too stubborn to step down.

Hoffman (or Madigan) would be a stronger candidate if the party could get Giannoulias to step down. The question is whether the party will show enough pressure to remove Giannoulias? ...or whether they will just accept defeat in November?


http://hillbuzz.org/2010/03/19/bigjournalism-solves-the-alexi-giannoulias-senate-replacement-mystery/

http://hillbuzz.org/2010/03/23/another-alexi-giannoulias-dead-man-walking-story/

http://hillbuzz.org/2010/03/26/illinois-senate-race-update-insiders-say-giannoulias-will-refuse-to-give-up-nomination/

$20 million in loans to felons
Broadway Bank lending, when Alexi Giannoulias was senior loan officer, detailed
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/elections/ct-met-giannoulias-bank-loans-20100401,0,5574130.story

Ross Levin said...

There is also a Green Party candidate, LeAlan Jones.

Anonymous said...

In having to face Brady, Quinn was given a gift from above.

Brady will get slaughtered north of I-80, and I fear, be a drag on Kirk.

Christian Liberty said...

Brady and Kirk both lead statewide. Independents on both sides of I-80 will vote Republican in numbers not seen for more than a decade.

Christian Liberty said...

Chicago banks with Texas-sized Texas ratios
http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/03/chicago-banks-with-texas-sized-texas-ratios.html

Broadway Bank may be considered the 3rd most troubled bank extant in greater Chicago. 3 Chicago-area banks have already failed. FDIC is opening a satellite office in Schaumburg just to accommodate the expected troubles of Midwestern banks.

3 banks in the Chicago area with Texas ratios above 200 have already failed. Broadway Bank's troublesome ratio has surged from 188 to 425.

The Democrat nominee for the Senate is likely to become more embarrassing rather than less.

Christian Liberty said...

Giannoulias' failed bank has been seized by FDIC.

Broadway Bank Lent $20M To Felons While Giannoulias Worked There
http://chicagoist.com/2010/04/02/under_giannoulias_broadway_bank_len.php

Feds Shut Down Broadway Bank
http://chicagoist.com/2010/04/24/feds_shut_down_broadway_bank.php

 
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