Illinois: Tenth District

Rep. Mark Kirk (R)

Mark Kirk (R) Elected 2000, 4th term up
Born:	09-15-1959, Champaign
Home:	Kenilworth
Education:	Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1977-78, Cornell U., B.A. 1981, London Sch. of Econ., M.Sc. 1982; Georgetown U., J.D. 1992
Religion:	Congregationalist
Marital Status:	married (Kimberly Vertolli-Kirk)
Military Career:	U.S. Naval Reserve, 1989-present.
Professional Career:	Parliamentary aide, British House of Commons, 1981-83; A.A., U.S. Rep. John E. Porter, 1984-89; Staffer, World Bank, 1990-91; Spec. Asst., U.S. Dept. of State, 1991-93; Practicing atty., 1993-95; Counsel, U.S. House Cmte. on Intl. Relations, 1995-2000.
DC Office	1030 LHOB, 20515 202-225-4835 Fax: 202-225-0837 Website: www.house.gov/kirk
State Offices	Northbrook:847-940-0202;
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Since 1855, when the Chicago & Northwestern opened the railroad line from downtown Chicago north along the lakeshore, the North Shore suburbs along Lake Michigan have been the favorite residence for Chicago’s elite. The North Shore starts in Evanston, and goes on to Wilmette and Winnetka and Glencoe, then crosses into the eastern Lake County towns of Highland Park and Lake Forest—each with a slightly different personality, each long established, mightily prosperous and with a patina of age. Not far from the gritty, monosyllabic city, these are communities of pleasant, affluent, well-educated people living in an environment whose natural beauty—the long water vista and blue light off the lake, the gentle hills and fine trees—is carefully disciplined. Corporate headquarters fit comfortably here, including Baxter Healthcare, Abbott Laboratories, Allstate Insurance. This is the home of the Great Lakes Naval Training Center and also of Highland Park, which provided the setting for the 1980s films Risky Business, Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

The 10th Congressional District of Illinois is the North Shore district, starting on the Wilmette lakefront, running north to the city of Waukegan (once famous as the home of comedian Jack Benny) and almost to the Wisconsin border. The district goes inland to Northbrook and Deerfield through what for many years were cornfields. Farther inland are suburbs like Arlington Heights, developed in the 1950s and 1960s on the Northwestern railroad line, and Wheeling, developed in the 1970s near I-294. To the north is Libertyville, near where the Adlai Stevensons, the late presidential candidate and his son the former senator, owned what is now one of the last farms only a few miles from Lake Michigan. With the big movement toward Democrats in the Chicago suburbs in the 1990s, this establishment Republican district voted narrowly for Al Gore in 2000 and by a slightly larger margin for John Kerry in 2004.

The congressman from the 10th District is Mark Kirk, a Republican first elected in 2000. Kirk was born in downstate Illinois but grew up mostly in Kenilworth, on the Lake between Wilmette and Winnetka. He graduated from Cornell and the London School of Economics, worked in Congressman John Porter’s Washington office and became the chief of staff in just three years. Kirk left Capitol Hill in 1990 and moved on to a number of Washington jobs, first at the World Bank, then as a State Department aide working on the Central American peace process, during which time he got his law degree at Georgetown. After two years of international law practice, he served four years as counsel to the House International Relations Committee. He is also a commander in the Naval Reserves, serving as an aviator with tours of duty in Turkey, Serbia, Bosnia, Haiti, and Panama. In flights during the Gulf War, he was a frequent target of Iraqi guns; he continues to work one weekend each month at the Pentagon’s “war room,” monitoring intelligence reports.

In 1999, when Porter announced his retirement, Kirk returned home to the 10th District, where he was one of 11 competitors in the Republican primary. This contest included six millionaires who spent nearly $4 million of their own money. Kirk did not spend nearly as much, but he had great advantages: the endorsement of the highly popular Porter, the fact that he was the only candidate with moderate views on cultural issues and his greater experience in government. His 31% put him well ahead of the 15% for R.R. Donnelley & Sons printing company heiress Shawn Margaret Donnelley, and the 14% for Northbrook Mayor Mark Damisch. Democrats nominated state Representative Lauren Beth Gash. Kirk and Gash campaigned as candidates in the Porter mold, promising to carry on his fiscally conservative, culturally moderate record. Gash tried to downplay Kirk’s years in Washington, touting her own legislative experience while talking about Social Security and prescription drugs. But Kirk won 51%-49%.

In the House, Kirk has compiled a centrist voting record, though a bit more liberal on social issues and conservative on foreign policy. He said that he wanted to strengthen moderate Republicans with a libertarian approach. His familiarity with the workings of the House and a helpful connection enabled him to get a seat on the Appropriations Committee. His explanation for the assignment: “Three words—J. Dennis Hastert.”

Kirk joined forces between Republican moderates and deficit hawks in 2004 on steps to limit federal spending; the House passed his amendment that requires the Congressional Budget Office to publish an annual report that compares projected annual spending for entitlements to the actual spending in the preceding year. He fought to eliminate funding for Alaska’s “bridge to nowhere.” Citing intelligence failures in Iraq, the well-informed Kirk pushed for reform of the intelligence community. “For the president, it’s incumbent on him to say mistakes were made and it’s incumbent on him to fix it,” he said. In October 2006, he demanded that the Pentagon do more about the opium crisis in Afghanistan and terrorism fueled by the sale of illegal narcotics. He filed the “American Heroes Act” proposal for a statue in the new Capitol Visitors Center to commemorate the victims of the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers struggled with terrorists to prevent them from reaching their target, which was probably the Capitol. With Democrat Jesse Jackson Jr. and backed by the Everglades Foundation, he fought unsuccessfully in the Appropriations Committee to end subsidized loans for storage by sugar processing companies; Chicago-area candy producers have complained that high sugar prices forced them to cut thousands of jobs. He pushed for O’Hare expansion and opposed a proposal for suburban rail commuters to subsidize the beleaguered Chicago Transit Authority. He worked with the 5th District’s Rahm Emanuel on a sweeping package to clean up Lake Michigan.

In the 109th Congress, Kirk co-chaired the mainstream Republicans’ Tuesday Group, and said that Congress should reflect the nation’s preponderant moderates. He unveiled a suburban agenda that he termed “pro-defense, pro-personal responsibility, pro-environment, and pro-science.” He also established the 55-member Suburban Agenda Caucus. In May 2005, with other GOP moderates, he successfully demanded a House vote on legislation to promote embryonic stem-cell research as a condition for his support of that year’s budget resolution. He spoke out against House Republicans’ “DeLay rule”, which sought to abandon the requirement that an indicted party leader must step down from the post; the proposal was dropped.

In 2006, he faced his most competitive reelection challenge. Democrats nominated Dan Seals, a marketing specialist who built a well-financed grass-roots campaign and espoused Democratic talking points. While largely maintaining his support for the war in Iraq, Kirk emphasized centrist positions on domestic policy that distanced himself from President Bush. Rahm Emanuel’s DCCC, which did not target this race, did some last-minute spending for Seals, including a mailing in which Bush had his arm around Kirk. But it wasn’t enough. Kirk won 53%-47%. He took 51% in Lake and 55% in Cook, which cast 57% of the total vote. Seals announced he would run again in 2008 but faced the prospect of primary opposition from former Clinton administration aide Jay Footlik. Some Republicans wanted Kirk to run against Senator Richard Durbin in 2008; Kirk dismissed the possibility. For now, at least, he has become the “go to” Republican in the northern suburbs. 

Committees

• Appropriations (22d of 29 R)
  Financial Services & General Government; State, Foreign Operations & Related Programs.

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 4
• Area size: 252 square miles
• Urban Population: 99.6%
• Rural Population: 0.4%
• Population 2000: 653,647
• Population 2005 (est): 669,028
• Median Income: $71,663
• Poverty Status: 4.8%
• Military Veterans: 10.5%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 75.2% White; 5.3% Black; 5.9% Asian; 0.1% Native Am.; 0.0% Hawaiian; 1.1% Two+ races; 0.2% Other; 12.3% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 14.4% German%; 9.9% Irish%; 7.3% Polish%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 14.4%; White collar 75.9%; Gray collar 9.7%;