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Dan Seals Wins Lone District 10 Debate Over U.S. Rep Mark Kirk

October 27, 2006

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. -- In the sole debate that Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk would agree to against District 10 opponent Dan Seals, the Democratic challenger laid bare Rep. Kirk's overwhelming support of failed Bush Administration policies and his dismal local results for constituents.   Seals' closing statement brought the crowd of thousands to a prolonged standing ovation Thursday night.

The debate, held at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, revealed why Rep. Kirk has been unwilling to face Seals in head-to-head matchups -- Seals had proposed six debates -- and to accept questions from unscreened voters in an unscripted forum.   Rep. Kirk's longtime avoidance of his constituents clearly resounded with the audience, which broke into cheers when Seals told the crowd that "I will have face-to-face town meetings" if elected.

The independent national pollster Majority Watch last week showed Seals with 44 percent of the vote and Rep. Kirk with 46 percent, in a survey conducted in mid-October.

Challenged by tough subjects Rep. Kirk has avoided in the neck-and-neck race, the incumbent responded by either changing the subject, backpedaling on earlier public stances, or misleading audience members by claiming to have played a larger role in achieving legislative gains than he actually did.

"I saved Impact Aid for North Chicago schools," Rep. Kirk began, but was cut off by boos from the crowd. Seals made the correction later that though Rep. Kirk was involved with the legislation, it has lingered in committee for years. "I would focus on getting the Impact Aid legislation out of committee for the first time and getting it passed into law," Seals said. "We have not been able to do that in six years."

With his candor and his in-depth responses to audience questions, Seals posed a sharp contrast to his opponent. Asked about the Iraq War, which Kirk has supported, Seals said, "The National Intelligence Estimate says we are losing the war on terrorism because of the war in Iraq ... We need a clear strategy with clear milestones." Seals proposed that the U.S. give Iraq a timetable for withdrawal. "Iraq needs to know this is not an open-ended commitment."

The politically savvy crowd of about 2,000 (as estimated by the League of Women Voters, which co-sponsored the event) broke with the debate's official rules to cheer and, on occasion, jeer -- as many did when Rep. Kirk gave a canned non-answer to a question on how to protect Social Security in the future.

Kirk's defensive tactic -- to shift focus to local issues -- failed him here, as Seals pointed out that his six years in Congress has garnered few local results. The challenger highlighted how Kirk's record demonstrates a failure to sponsor legislation. "He has offered 39 bills to date and none have made it out of committee," Seals said. Kirk touted his backing of a bill to halt sewage dumping into Lake Michigan, but failed to mention enforcement wouldn't begin until 2025.

Last night's debate effectively ended Rep. Kirk's campaign-season claims that his political views and voting record demonstrate a "moderate" legislator, though he invoked several Democratic leaders in an attempt to show bipartisan leanings. Audience members heard how Rep. Kirk solidly supported Bush Administration policies on the Iraq War from the beginning; how he approved every bloated, unrestrained and irresponsible budget Bush handed down; how he sided with ultra-conservatives to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case; and how he only veered from Bush-backed bills a scant 9 percent of the time.

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