Senate candidate and real estate developer Patrick Hughes came
out swinging at primary opponent Congressman Mark Kirk's
liberal and centrist voting record in a conversation with
TAS on Thursday. When comparing his conservative
candidacy to that of Marco Rubio running against the more
moderate Charlie Crist for Senate in Florida, Hughes said, "I
believe that Mark Kirk is far more liberal on all the issues than
Charlie Crist is, and would be much more likely to vote outside a
Republican line of thinking, or even in many cases a moderate
line of thinking, than Crist would."
Of particular concern was Kirk's "yes" vote on Cap and Trade in
June, but Hughes also raised questions over Kirk's "F" rating
from the NRA, his vote against a partial-birth abortion ban, his
co-sponsoring of hate crimes law, his vote against the Iraq War
surge, and the congressman's opposing a Constitutional amendment
defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
When discussing Cap and Trade, the issue he said drove him to run
for Senate, Hughes argued that Kirk's vote has led to fewer
capital investments due to price uncertainty that has resulted
from the bill, and has in turn damaged job creation in Illinois
-- a state with 11% unemployment. He also cited the direct impact
it would have on coal miners, as Illinois is the 7th-most coal
producing state in the country.
Hughes went a step further in his attacks on Kirk by arguing that
his vote for Cap and Trade allowed the political capital that
President Obama needed to pass healthcare -- saying that Obama's
approval would have fallen if Cap and Trade had failed, which
would make it more difficult for healthcare to pass with some
Democrats. "I believe we would have been able to pull off those
three Democrats (that would have resulted in the House Healthcare
bill not passing) and probably more. I think, ultimately,
Congressman Kirk's vote for Cap and Trade proved to be a vote in
favor of the healthcare bill."
Congressman Kirk has since signed the Americans for Prosperity
pledge not to raise any climate taxes, but Hughes argued that
Kirk has no credibility on this issue since he had voted for
Waxman-Markey just three months prior to signing. "His switch on
that position shows his willingness to do whatever it takes to
win the election," Hughes concluded.
On national security matters, Hughes supports the Afghan
surge. He also spoke out against non-intervention conservatism.
"I don't support non-interventionism at all. To me,
non-interventionism is extremely dangerous in a way that economic
protectionism is extremely dangerous," Hughes stated.
Despite the many left-of-center stances that Kirk has adopted,
Hughes's campaign has not yet taken off when looking at most
polls, or gained much traction in terms of endorsements or
fundraising to reach the level of support that Kirk has received.
While Hughes and others have compared the Illinois campaign to
that of the more conservative Marco Rubio running against a more
liberal Charlie Crist for Senate in Florida, the amount of
national attention and support that Rubio has received --
endorsements from Club for Growth, DeMint, Huckabee, Karl Rove,
and speaking at CPAC -- has not yet materialized for Hughes. Even
Red State has
indicated that it "would be fine" with Kirk, albeit maintaining
some suspicion.
A large concern is that Illinois is viewed as a liberal state,
and the seat that Hughes and Kirk are seeking was the one
occupied by President Obama. Looking at Illinois's D+9 Cook
Partisan Voter Index rating, which puts Illinois in a tie for 7th
most Democratic, many have believed that the best way for
Republicans to win is to put up a more centrist or even liberal
candidate to run against front-runner state Treasurer Alexi
Giannoulias. Another problem that some critics see is that Hughes
has never held elected office, and thus has no record to cite.
Hughes, however, citing the successful candidacy of Peter
Fitzgerald's 1998 election run, argued that the key to winning
was coalescing the conservative base in the primary rather than
rushing to the center. He could be right about that, but he needs
to coalesce the conservative base very quickly in order for us to
see how it plays out. He has 47 days until the primary.
