ILLINOIS
      Nov. 2, 2010 U.S. Senate (Special plus Regular)                     

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Six-Year Term
+Mark Kirk (R)
1,778,698
 		48.01%
Alexi Giannoulias (D)
 		1,719,478
 		46.42%
LeAlan M. Jones (G)
 		117,914 3.18%
Mike Labno (L)
 		87,247 2.36%
write-ins (9)
 		1,136

3,704,473
Plurality: 59,220 votes (1.59 percentage points)

Special
+Mark Kirk (R)
1,677,729
 		47.31%
Alexi Giannoulias (D)
 		1,641,486
 		46.29%
LeAlan M. Jones (G)
 		129,571
 		3.65%
Mike Labno (G)
 		95,762
 		2.70%
write-ins (8)
 		1,436

3,545,984
Plurality: 36,243 votes (1.02 percentage points)

Registration: 7,506,073 (includes same day registration).
IL State Board of Elections



REPUBLICAN PICK-UP
Notes:  On Dec. 30, 2008 Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) announced his appointment of  former Illinois comptroller and attorney general Roland Burris (D) to fill the seat held by President-elect Barack Obama.  Burris was sworn in on Jan. 15, 2009.  However, also in Jan. 2009 the Illinois General Assembly impeached Blagojevich for attempting to sell the Obama Senate seat and removed him from office.  Burris' ties to Blagojevich were seen as a problem, and on July 9, 2009 he announced he would not run for election to a full term in 2010.  As a result, on Nov. 2, 2010, Illinois voters cast votes for U.S. Senate in both a special election(to finish the Obama term) and a regular general election.

First came the primaries.  In the Feb. 2, 2010 Republican primary, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk won 56.63% of the vote, defeating Patrick J. Hughes (19.26%), Don Lowery (8.94%), Kathleen Thomas (7.28%), Andy Martin (5.05%) and John Arrington (2.84%).  In the Democratic primary, Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias won 38.93% of the vote, defeating former City of Chicago inspector general David Hoffman (33.68%), Chicago Urban League president and CEO Cheryle Jackson (19.86%), Robert Marshall (5.73%) and Jacob Meister (1.80%).  Also on the November ballot were third party candidates LeAlan M. Jones (G) and Mike Labno (L).

The general election campaign was closely fought and filled with attacks.  Giannoulias and Kirk debated on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Oct. 10; on ABC7 WLS-TV in Chicago on Oct. 19 (>); and on WTTW-TV in Chicago on Oct. 27 (>).  When the votes were tallied, Kirk won both the special and regular general elections, narrowly defeating Giannoulias.  Kirk was sworn in on Nov. 29, 2010.

Open Secrets reports the Kirk campaign spent $14.1 million compared to $9.9 million for Giannoulias campaign (>).  On top of the spending by the campaigns, outside groups poured $30.5 million into the race.  Six groups invested over $1 million, of which five were Republican-aligned: NRSC ($9.6 million), Crossroads GPS ($4.5 million), U.S. Chamber of Commerce ($1.7 million), American Crossroads ($1.1 million) and New Prosperity Foundation ($1 million).  On the Democratic side, the DSCC spent $8.4 million.



Campaign Managers:
Mark Kirk:  Eric Elk
(June 2009)  Chief of staff (Mar. 2007-June 2009) and senior advisor (Aug. 2003-Mar. 2007) to U.S. Rep. Kirk.  Account executive at Midwest Public Affairs Group, Feb. 2001-Aug. 2003.  Legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. Phil Crane, July 1994-Feb. 2001.  Studied political science and government at Illinois State University.

Alexi Giannoulias:  Michael Rendina
(Mar. 2010)  Campaign manager on Dan Hynes for Governor, July 2009-Feb. 2010.  Campaign manager on Bill Foster for Congress, June-Nov. 2008.  Caucus director for MD Senate Democrats, June 2007-June 2008.  Campaign manager on Committee to Elect George Johnson, Apr. 2005-Dec. 2006.  M.A. in political management (2005) and B.A. in international affairs (2002) from The George Washington University.


See also:
Ben Smith.  "Illinois: The slimiest Senate race?"  Politico, Oct. 30, 2010.

Steve Kornacki.  "The most depressing debate ever."  Salon, Oct. 20, 2010.

Alexander Burns.  "Honesty attacks escalate in Illinois."  Politico, Oct. 13, 2010.









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