{"id":228457,"date":"2010-01-25T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01287710231b970c"},"modified":"2010-01-25T17:20:17","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T22:20:17","slug":"giannoulias-kirk-continue-to-lead-senate-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/228457","title":{"rendered":"Giannoulias, Kirk continue to lead Senate races"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the print edition<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Giannoulias, Kirk continue to lead Senate races<\/h2>\n

Tribune\/WGN-TV poll shows undecided voters could still swing Feb. 2 primary<\/h3>\n

By Rick Pearson, Tribune reporter<\/p>\n

State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias entered the final days of the
\ncampaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination with a significant
\nadvantage over rivals Cheryle Jackson and David Hoffman, but undecided
\nvoters could still swing the election, a new Tribune\/WGN-TV poll shows.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nRepublican Senate contender Mark Kirk held onto a wide lead over
\nlittle-known challengers, but a third of GOP primary voters were still
\nundecided with the Feb. 2 primary looming.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe statewide poll conducted Jan. 16 to 20 shows candidates in both
\nparties have yet to sway large numbers of voters in a nationally
\nwatched race for the seat formerly held by President Barack Obama.\n<\/p>\n

Giannoulias was backed by 34 percent of Democrats, while 19 percent
\nsupported Jackson, the former Chicago Urban League president, and 16
\npercent supported Hoffman, the former Chicago inspector general. The
\npoll of 601 likely Democratic voters has an error margin of 4
\npercentage points.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAbout a quarter of Democrats were undecided, leaving room for the
\ncontest to tighten as candidates make their final appeals for support.
\nTwo other contenders, Chicago attorney Jacob Meister and Burr Ridge
\nradiologist Robert Marshall, continued to show only 1 percent support
\neach.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nGiannoulias, a wealthy banking heir who won his first bid for statewide
\noffice four years ago, and Jackson, a former top aide to ousted Gov.
\nRod Blagojevich, saw their support increase slightly from a similar
\npoll in early December. Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor, showed
\nthe biggest gain \u2014 7 percentage points \u2014 since the Dec. 2 to 8 survey.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nBut Hoffman remains known to just half of voters statewide, similar to
\nJackson, while Giannoulias has been able to enjoy greater name
\nrecognition through his state treasurer’s post. Despite Hoffman’s
\nattempts to criticize Giannoulias over controversial bank loans at the
\nfamily’s Broadway Bank and a $150 million loss in a state college
\nsavings fund, the state treasurer has not seen a drop in job approval
\nand favorability ratings. He has used his financial advantage to run TV
\nads aimed at drowning out negative attacks from opponents.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nJackson, the lone African-American contender in the Democratic contest,
\nhas the support of 48 percent of black voters, which has helped keep
\nher virtually even with Giannoulias among Chicago voters. But Jackson’s
\npercentage of black support has not increased significantly since
\nDecember, while Giannoulias’ backing from African-Americans has roughly
\ndoubled to nearly a quarter of the black vote.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nGiannoulias also holds a healthy edge over his rivals of 2-to-1 or better among suburban Cook County and collar-county voters.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nJackson has not raised enough money to mount an aggressive TV ad
\ncampaign. Hoffman has largely used debates to contend that as Democrats
\ntry to keep the seat Blagojevich was accused of trying to sell, he is
\nthe only major contender not associated with the taint of the former
\ngovernor.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe contest has largely been focused in the Chicago area, where the top
\ncontenders live, and nearly half of the voters outside the six-county
\nregion remain undecided \u2014 virtually unchanged from six weeks ago.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nOn the Republican side, Kirk, a five-term North Shore congressman,
\nholds a commanding advantage over Hinsdale businessman Patrick Hughes,
\n47 percent to 8 percent. None of the four other contenders in the GOP
\nrace \u2014 Kathleen Thomas, Don Lowery, John Arrington or Andy Martin \u2014 had
\nmore than 3 percent.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nIn December, Kirk was supported by 41 percent of likely GOP primary
\nvoters, while all of his rivals had 3 percent support or less. In
\nJanuary, 35 percent of Republican primary voters were still undecided
\nin the contest, including nearly half of downstate voters and nearly 40
\npercent of those who say they are very conservative.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAlready known to more than 90 percent of Republican voters in the
\nChicago area, Kirk has improved his name recognition outside the region
\nin the last six weeks, jumping from 44 percent to 71 percent. Yet
\nnearly 4 in 10 downstate voters don’t know enough about him to rate him
\nfavorably or unfavorably. Hughes remains unknown to nearly half of the
\nstate’s GOP voters.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nKirk maintains strong backing in the Chicago area with support from 61
\npercent of GOP voters in Cook County and 56 percent in the collar
\ncounties.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nHughes has sought to cultivate support from disaffected Republicans and
\nothers through the "tea party" movement critical of higher taxes and
\nspending and big government, citing Kirk’s initial support for
\ncap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon emissions. Kirk, a social
\nmoderate, has since said he would not vote for such legislation in
\nrepresenting the entire state.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nMore than half of GOP voters said they agreed with the tea party
\nmovement, including nearly 70 percent of those who describe themselves
\nas very conservative. But that hasn’t translated into support for
\nHughes. The survey found Kirk being supported by 48 percent of
\nRepublicans who said they backed the tea party movement while Hughes
\ngot only 10 percent support.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nWhile one-third of likely GOP primary voters said they mostly agree
\nwith Kirk on the issues, nearly a quarter of GOP voters said they
\nbelieve he isn’t conservative enough \u2014 a percentage similar to six
\nweeks ago.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010, Chicago Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the print edition: Giannoulias, Kirk continue to lead Senate races Tribune\/WGN-TV poll shows undecided voters could still swing Feb. 2 primary By Rick Pearson, Tribune reporter State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias entered the final days of the campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination with a significant advantage over rivals Cheryle Jackson and David Hoffman, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}