A Senate race heavy with symbolism but also important to the national political landscape concludes Tuesday as voters decide who will win the seat once held by President Barack Obama.
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CHICAGO (AP) — A Senate race heavy with symbolism but also important to the national political landscape concludes Tuesday as voters decide who will win the seat once held by President Barack Obama.
The major candidates: Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, an Obama protege burdened by the failure of his family’s bank, and Republican Mark Kirk, a congressman and Navy Reservist who made false claims about his military record.
A defeat for Giannoulias would be an embarrassing repudiation for the president in his home state. Obama, his wife and top aides have campaigned for Giannoulias in a bid to keep the seat in Democratic hands.
A loss also would weaken Democrats’ hold on the Senate by depriving them of a seat in what is supposed to be a Democratic state.
Giannoulias played professional basketball in Greece and became a friend and basketball buddy of Obama’s. Encouraged by the future president, he ran for Illinois treasurer and won on the strength of his experience as an executive at his family’s Broadway Bank.
Four years later, he set his sights on winning Obama’s former Senate seat. But his banking experience worked against him when the bank failed and was taken over by federal regulators. Giannoulias also had to explain — again and again — his role in the bank’s loans to two people with ties to organized crime and to corrupt political insider Antoin "Tony" Rezko.
He faced Kirk, who looked like the clear favorite with his mix of moderate social views and military experience. Then came the revelation that after long saying he was the Navy’s "intelligence officer of the year," Kirk never actually won that award.
It turned out that at various times Kirk also had falsely said he served in the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, claimed to run the Pentagon war room and said he came under enemy fire on flights over Kosovo and Iraq.
Such misrepresentations weakened Kirk and made the Illinois Senate race one of the nation’s closest and most-watched contests.
In addition to the major-party candidates, Green candidate LeAlan Jones and Libertarian Mike Labno also ran.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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