Votes for Taxpayers 58% of the time

by Eric Dondero

The big news in the political world until Wednedsay will be out of Illinois. The State is the first to hold absurdly early primaries. The Republican side is pretty certain.

Moderate-to-conservate GOPer Mark Kirk looks all but certain to lock up the nomination. He's way out ahead in the polls over his staunchly conservative challenger, Paul Hughes.

Kirk is a four-term Congressman from the North Shore. He's also a longtime Naval Veteran, with two tours in Afghanistan under his belt. Conservatives are suspicious, mainly due to his moderately pro-choice stance on abortion and middle-of-the-road on gay rights. But he's a good fit for socially moderate Illinois. From the Washington Post:

Democrats will portray Kirk as a Washington "insider" and a "flip-flopper" who veered to the right to satisfy conservatives to win the primary.

This is the first primary in a series of states where moderate Republicans are being pushed to the right by the conservative "tea party" movement, raising GOP concerns that winning primary candidates will find it difficult to return to the middle for the general election.

Ironically, the Dems plan to hit him as a "Sarah Palin-ite." Continuing:

Democrats have criticized Kirk for soliciting support from Sarah Palin...

Still, social conservatives, most notably radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, have been crusading against Kirk, and for their choice little-known challenger Patrick Hughes.

GayPatriot reminds fellow Republicans:

Kirk did vote against the “stimulus” and against Obamacare. He may not be as good as Hughes, but he’s better than whatever Democrat the president’s party nominates...

[He's] not ideal, but then again, Scott Brown is not ideologically ideal... [With Kirk, we'll] have someone voting for you 60% of the time, instead of voting against you 90% of the time.

And although Kirk is not a favorite among social conservatives, he has some other support on the Hard Right. Chicago Libertarian stalwart Jeff Wartman is supporting him. From Libertarian Republican, Jan. 12:

While it’s true that many social reactionary Republicans will oppose Congressman Kirk based on a small amount of fringe issues, the fact of the matter remains that Congresman Kirk has been helping to lead the fight to oppose the Democrats national takeover of health care, reduce the deficit, cut taxes, and keep our country safe.

On the latter, Kirk takes a firm stance on a key national security issue: He is one of the most vocal opponents to Obama's "Illinois Gitmo" plan. (See video House floor speech)

Here's the bottom line: Mark Kirk scores an all-time 48 on ACU and a 58 on NTU. The American Conservative Union score includes social issues. So, from a purely libertarian/socially moderate perspective, a 48 score is not so bad. National Taxpayers Union is more reflective of libertarian thought. And a 58 score, is decent, particularly considering this is Illinois. And his "Yes" votes came on some very key Tax legislation:

* Capital Gains & Income Tax cuts

* Eliminating Estate Tax

* Making Bush Tax Cuts permanent

* Providing Tax Relief and Simplification

* Eliminate the Marriage Tax Penalty

Now compare that 58% score to the last available scorer on NTU for the Illinois Senate seat, which was a lowly 5%. No, that lowly score does not belong to Roland Burris. It's too soon to index his votes. But rather, to Burris's predecessor Senator Barack Hussein Obama.

Obviously, replacing Obama/Burris with Kirk, and going from 5% to 58% would be a significant improvement.