Kirk Commitment Clear

The Wilmette blog endorses Mark Kirk in the 10th, with these key points:

Seals, whose support comes from the usual sources of Democrat funding and from entrenched Democratic politicians, has had the luxury of being a full-time candidate for Congress for the past year. Six years ago Congressman Mark Kirk, then Congressman John Porter's Chief-of-Staff, beat out nine other candidates in a hotly contested primary. Since that time he has unified both Porter's independent base and supporters of his opponents' primary campaign.

Wilmette has details of the investigation of Seals' fundraising by Atty. General Madigan, and also of an FEC letter to the Seals campaign concerning its fundraising compliance. (Lots of $$$ coming in from liberal California--and Sen. Kerry's tantrum, uh stomping grounds, in Massachusetts.) The Tribune also noted an additional FEC investigation here:

An FEC spokeswoman confirmed that the agency is looking into a complaint that Seals failed to properly disclose who was paying for a fundraising solicitation letter on his behalf that was written by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat. Richard Ringer, Seals' campaign spokesman, called it "a minor staff error" that had been corrected.

Is this starting to look like a pattern? You'd think the machine Democrats and their candidates would have this fundraising drill down pat. But apparently old habits, or not so old ones, are hard to break. Schakowsky's husband Robert Creamer, who wrote bad checks to fuel her campaign, was just released from prison Friday. Previous post here.)

Seals earlier last week ducked a previously agreed to debate. Lake County News-Sun:

Seals' campaign had announced last month that the candidate would appear with Kirk in Waukegan.

"We never agreed to the format," Mogge said. "And when we tried to negotiate a debate that would actually serve the public interest, the organizers were not interested."

"That's nonsense ... They should be ashamed of themselves," said Jordan Madorsky, who moderates City Club political forums.

The format Tuesday was to be the same format used by the City Club for decades, he said: Candidates make statements and then take verbal questions from club members.

This does raise the question again, Can you count on Dan Seals?

Kirk gave Waukegan his attention:

Kirk showed up with his wife, Kimberly, a newly appointed analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency, and spoke mainly about a proposed $32 million cleanup of Waukegan Harbor and projects under way at Great Lakes Naval Station and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Chicago.

A $32 million mostly federally funded cleanup of Waukegan Harbor will be announced next month, Kirk predicted. The project will "ignite an economic boom" in Waukegan, he said.

Having grown up here, Mark Kirk has a deep knowledge and commitment to the district, and it shows.

UPDATE: More outsider contributions coming in to Seals from Friends of John Kerry, (apparently Seals has no problem taking his money and didn't ask for an apology, unlike Hillary and even Howard Dean.) and money from Evanston, Chicago and other liberal hotspots around the country.