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Video

Illinois Senate Rivals Spar Over Credibility in First Debate

2 years ago

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Illinois Senate rivals Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias clashed over the economy and each other's credibility in their first debate Sunday, on NBC's Meet the Press.

Giannoulias opened a new front during the session, hosted by David Gregory, when he accused Kirk several times of telling "whoppers," focusing on Kirk's claim -- on Sunday, and during the campaign -- that he had "become very much of a fiscal hawk here."

"This is a fundamental public policy difference between myself and Congressman Kirk," Giannoulias said. "He says he's-- a fiscal hawk. Look -- the congressman has told some real whoppers during this campaign, but that may be the biggest one of all. He voted for every single one of the Bush budgets, which doubled our national debt. He voted to increase his own pay six times. He voted for the bridge to nowhere twice."

But Giannoulias was put on the defensive by questions from Gregory over loans made by the Giannoulias family's failed bank to crime figures, which is a central target of Kirk's campaign against Giannoulias, who is often called a "mob banker" in Kirk advertising.

Kirk, for his part, again apologized for a series of embellishments he made about his record as an officer in the Navy Reserves. The stories about his misstatements that surfaced over the summer marked the low point of his campaign for Kirk, who once seemed like a shoo-in against Giannoulias but who never fully recovered from the disclosures.

That's a reason Giannoulias, 34, the Illinois State Treasurer and Kirk, 51, a five-term congressman,have been deadlocked in polls for months.

The Giannoulias and Kirk camps have been running negative television spots for weeks. If all you knew about the contest was from the ads, it would seem a race between a mob banker and a serial embellisher.

The contest has drawn national attention because it is for the Senate seat once held by President Obama.

Kirk and Giannoulias debate again on Oct. 19 and Oct. 27, both times in Chicago.

At issue for Giannoulias on Sunday were loans the Giannoulias family owned Broadway Bank made when Giannoulias was an officer at the bank -- which failed in August. The issue has followed Giannoulias from his Democratic primary into the general election contest with Kirk.

"I didn't know the extent of their activities," Giannoulias said when asked about the loans to crime figures. Gregory asked again about what Giannoulias knew, and he said, "I didn't know the extent of their activities."

After the debate, Kirk, speaking to reporters on the Meet the Press set after the debate, said Giannoulias answer "lacks some credibility given how heavily these figures were covered in the (Chicago) Tribune and Sun-Times."

Giannoulias said after the debate that his remarks were "consistent with everything I've said over the past few years. ...the folks back in Illinois know that I have been very consistent."

I asked Giannoulias to explain what he meant when he used the word "extent" in his response to Gregory, and he said, "We knew there were rumblings of problems. These weren't loans that I was intimately involved in. These weren't relationships that I brought to the bank, nothing has changed."

Kirk, for his part, sought to further explain his misstatements about his Navy Reserve service -- including his claim that he received an award that was actually given to his unit.

"I made mistakes with regard to my military statements," he said. "I was careless and I learned a very painful and humbling lesson."

On policy matters, the two split sharply over the impact of Obama's economic stimulus program.

Kirk said, "First of all, we recognize that the stimulus has largely failed. A very small part of it even went to infrastructure development projects. It didn't answer the question, 'What happens when all the borrowed money runs out?' Secondly, this Congress has been very, very viciously anti-business. New taxes, new regulation. We need senators and Congressmen that will pass a pro-growth agenda."

Giannoulias said there were flaws in the stimulus program, but it helped avoid more job and economic loss.

"The bigger question is what would have happened?" Giannoulias asked. "It was not flawlessly done, but if you take a look at what would have happened, do we need to see soup lines down the street to figure out what would have happened. We avoided and all economists will tell you that millions of jobs were saved because of the Recovery Act and we avoid a second great depression, that is a reality."

Filed Under: Senate, 2010 Elections

Tagged: 2010 Elections, 2010 Senate Elections, 2010 Senate Races, dailyguidance, Giannoulias family bank, Illinois Elections, Illinois Senate Race, Kirk military record, Mark Kirk

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brookjax

It is most certainly Not True that all economists will tell you that millions of jobs were saved by the stimulus. There were few 'shovel ready' jobs to fund, and the accounting for the jobs saved has been juvenile and ridiculous. The Administration has changed the way it calculates jobs saved several times because its methods were found to be grossly inaccurate by 'all economists.'

October 11 2010 at 12:55 AM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply

brookjax

October 11 2010 at 12:29 AM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply

dimestone

AOL should be under fire for this article, they have only covered two of the candidates. What about Green Party Candidate LeAlan Jones? AOL hear us now? We want 3rd party candidate coverage. This article is an example that resembles most News anywhere, it is Media Censorship run rabid in this country. Why would perfectly viable candidates be left out of the debate? I agree with jmeehan102 about third party candidates being the only choice that makes sense.

October 11 2010 at 12:26 AM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to dimestone's comment

christierandall

the problems is these other candidates do not stand out as being or having done anything that great. We have never heard of them because I really have never seen any adds or any information on them.

October 11 2010 at 10:23 AM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply

crrunch

Well, which of lesser evils is gonna win this one? Unfortunately, we have choices of bad and worse. And it's not just Illinois in this dilemma. We need multiple ragers against the machine. Until that happens, the few elected 'Mr Smiths' will be stomped on and buried in appropriations, not to mention countrywide smears so easy to do on the web these days.....I don't have one good feeling about either of these guys.

October 10 2010 at 11:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jmeehan102

Third party candidates are the only choice that makes sense in most of the current races.

October 10 2010 at 10:58 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

realitybeknown

It's obvious that neither one of these candidates is qualified for US Senate, so why eliminate the other two candidates who are on the ballot from the debate? There are two more debates to go, and they should include the Green and Libertarian Party candidates. LeAlan Jones, the Green Party candidate, has quite an impressive history. Imagine that, an impressive history over a shameful one.

October 10 2010 at 10:49 PM Report abuse Permalink +6 rate up rate down Reply

Pllc15

Veterans view those with distain who lie about their military service (also includes CT's Blumenthal). These two Illinois politicians are fundamentally lacking in character by the sounds of it, but that's for the Ilinis to decide in November.

October 10 2010 at 10:16 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

enobdeafdiver

It would have been nice to have all the people running for the senate seat to be in the debate, including Tea Party and Green Party people, just to see what they could say. I would rather pick a person with outstanding qualities even if he did not have a lot of money in his campaign chest. Neither of these canidates appeal to me personally. I wish they would debate more about policies and if they will listen to their voters.

October 10 2010 at 8:31 PM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down Reply

Kurt

Both these candidates are not qualified or worthy to serve as a US senator from Illinois. I will be voting for a third party candidate.

October 10 2010 at 8:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

John B

Let's vote all incumbents out! After a few election cycles we'll get a brand new Congress with non-career politicians. I am sick of the politics in this country, and oh, pay for your own damn pensions.

October 10 2010 at 8:03 PM Report abuse Permalink +7 rate up rate down Reply