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| Campaign Ads Again Issue in IL Senate Race |
The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate says his latest ad campaign is accurate, despite what his opponent says.
An ad for U.S. Rep. Mark S. Kirk (R-Highland Park) claims that a top campaign aide for Democrat Alexi Giannoulias worked as a lobbyist for BP.
According to Fact Check.org, the Giannoulias aide, Endy Zemenides, was a registered lobbyist for a partnership between BP and a leasing company that was to do maintenance and upkeep on BP gas stations. The aide worked mostly on zoning cases in Chicago as Amoco gas stations were converted to BP stations. The City of Chicago requires lawyers engaged in zoning practice to register as lobbyists.
Kirk says it doesn’t matter what kind of work the individual did in representation of BP. "A BP lobbyist is a BP lobbyist," Kirk told reporters Monday after a campaign speech in Northbrook.
According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Kirk has received campaign money from a firm that did business with oil and gas companies in past election cycles but says there is no oil money in this campaign. Kirk says there are many families in the Chicago area tied to BP either directly or through older ties through Amoco and Standard oil.
It's a BP oil well that has caused million of gallons of oil to spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Giannoulias campaign says the implication of Kirk's ad is that this aide influenced federal policy that allowed BP to operate the well that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, when in fact the aide was "lobbying" the city of Chicago over issues such as signage and landscaping for gas stations long before the explosion took place.
"The voters of Illinois deserve better than such obvious dishonesty from another typical Washington politician who clearly will say and do anything to win," Alexi for Illinois spokesman Matt McGrath said on a written statement.
(Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 07 13 10 by Newsroom |
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