Kirk's path to Senate race: A military man touts his experience
July 20, 2009.
As Mark Kirk stood on the doorstep of his childhood home in Kenilworth to announce his campaign for U.S. Senate, he ran his hands over his carefully parted hair. Pinching his thumb and forefingers together, he adjusted the monogrammed cuffs of his starched white shirt. He bounced slightly on the balls of his feet.
He was ready. After nearly a decade as a popular congressman in the North suburban 10th district, he was confident, prepared to move to the next level of the political arena the upper chamber.
Long before midterm polls suggested some Americans might be frustrated with Democratic leadership, and analysts predicted a possible “Republican wave,” former Gov. Jim Edgar pronounced Kirk “a Republican who can win in November.”
Even as a group of protesters heckled Kirk that warm July day, he stayed on course, speaking in the crisp, fact-laden manner that he has trademarked.
It was all exactly as he'd planned. A military man, dependability and precision are key components of his persona characteristics he insists are the real thing even in the face of revelations that he had embellished his military record and despite a move away from that independence he says voters can count on.
Kirk, a self-described moderate previously endorsed by gay rights and abortion rights groups, has, since winning the Senate primary in February, voted the party line more often than not. Kirk sees no discrepancy. He says he's owned up to his mistakes, and is making votes as a moderate with an eye on fiscal responsibility.
During a speech last month in Northbrook, the 51-year-old Highland Park Republican touted the suburban legacy he'd established during the past decade. A legacy of moderate, independent leadership, he said.
“Together, we saved the North Chicago V.A. from closing,” he said.
“We completed the double-tracking of Metra's North Central Line, relieving traffic congestion and improving our environment for communities in the North and Northwest suburbs. We helped fund the Northern Illinois Gang Taskforce and gave the Waukegan police the tools and federal backup they needed to crack down on gang leaders. We led the efforts to clean up Waukegan Harbor, restore the Great Lakes and promote cleaner, American energy sources to end our national dependence on foreign oil. ... Effective leadership. Responsive government. Promises made, promises kept.”
Born in Champaign, Kirk lived in Chatham and Downers Grove, before moving to Kenilworth in fifth grade, graduating from New Trier High School in 1977.
Childhood friend Bill Hartel remembers Kirk as “studious. He would become interested in a topic, and learn everything we could about it.”
The pair regularly played the world-domination board game Risk and held root beer-tasting contests, and listened to Jim Croce and show tunes, Hartel said.
They also wrote and filmed a home science-fiction movie centered around the country's 1976 bicentennial, where “everyone was buying souvenirs that were infected with this disease,” he laughed.
Kirk says a near-drowning experience while sailboating on Lake Michigan at age 16 propelled his desire to pursue a career in public service.
But media reports this summer that questioned the details of that experience, including the level of hypothermia he suffered and how long he was waiting out in the water, stripped some of the shine off the tale of a life-changing experience.
Kirk attended Blackburn College in downstate Carlinville, spending a semester abroad at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, before transferring to Cornell University, where he graduated in 1981.
He noted proudly during an ABC 7/League of Women Voters debate on Oct. 17 that he was an alum of the Mexican school though in reality, he spent only a semester there.
He attended graduate school overseas, at the London School of Economics, spending time working for the 1983 re-election of English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and at an English private school before returning to the U.S., working for U.S. Rep John Porter and enrolling in Georgetown's law school at night.
When Kirk first announced his bid for Congress in 2000, U.S. Rep. Phil Crane predicted Kirk's experience as a member of Porter's staff would make him an independent legislator, following in Porter's footsteps with a record of leadership on environmental issues and fiscal responsibility.
“John has that kind of historical record that is valuable, but Mark has that record, too, by serving with John,” Crane said.
Commissioned as a Naval Reserve Intelligence Officer in 1989, Kirk served during conflicts with Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and Bosnia, after which he was decorated with several prestigious awards.
While working at the Pentagon in 1998, he met future wife Kimberly Vertolli, also a Naval Intelligence Officer. Married for eight years, the pair divorced in June 2009.
This summer, Kirk's seemingly sparkling resume was tarnished when it became clear that he had added details that were not true.
He said he was the Navy's intelligence officer of the year, when, in fact, he was part of a team named for outstanding service. It also was revealed that he exaggerated claims of having commanded the Pentagon war room, served in the Gulf War, and come under enemy fire in Iraq.
Kirk has apologized repeatedly for those mistakes, though has been vague as to why he made them.
His opponent, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, has been dogged by his own share of troubles this campaign the April collapse of his family's Chicago bank and subsequent reports of loans to organized crime by that bank.
As Kirk branded Giannoulias a “mob banker,” Giannoulias, in turn, has painted Kirk a “serial liar” whose exaggerations seep into his record as a public servant.
Kirk's campaign has called those attacks unfair, yet has spent millions on ads branding Giannoulias as a mob banker.
The exaggerations of his record have been difficult to shake for Kirk, especially as his moderate voting record also been called into question.
Kirk, in an editorial endorsement interview at the Daily Herald Oct. 7, showed a chart detailing members of Congress votes on a left-to-right spectrum. He pointed out that he falls in
the exact center, voting against his party to end subsidies for big oil, to cut student loan interest rates, and for stem cell research.
However, in recent months, Kirk has taken a majority of votes with his party voting against a small business lending bill, and teaching jobs legislation.
He said he wouldn't support cap and trade anti-pollution legislation though he'd previously voted for it, and lost the gay rights group the Human Rights Campaign's endorsement after voting against repealing the military's “don't ask, Don't tell” policy in May.
Responding to the criticism that he may be shifting further right since he announced his bid for Senate, he said, “that's mainly the other side. In the firestorm of a campaign, both campaigns will try to push their (opponents) to the extreme. But my voting record is pretty clear,” he said.
Kirk said he knew he was “going to go through a firestorm of scrutiny” as he campaigned.
“My job is to take it as an adult, to respond,” he said. “In the case of my military record, to apologize, and in the end submit to the judgment of the people.”