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The American Review of Politics, Vol Playing Defense in the Illinois 10th: Surviving “Obama-mania” in the Shadow of Chicago Wayne P. Steger Mark Kirk, Republican Representative for the 10th congressional district of Illinois, faced a daunting reelection challenge in 2008. As noted earlier, national conditions favored the Democrats in 2008 with an unpopular Republican president, increasingly unpopular wars, high energy prices, a looming recession, increasing problems with the health care system, and growing budget deficits that limit solutions. National polls indicated wide- spread public dissatisfaction with the status quo on a wide range of issues and increasing support for “change.” Further, the Democrats won control of the House and Senate in 2006 and more recent polls indicated a growing Democratic advantage in national partisan identification. Finally, Democrats nominated a charismatic presidential candidate who excited Democratic voters while Republicans nominated one who drew temperate support from segments of the Republican base.1 Still, Mark Kirk was able to defend his seat and score a reelection win in this difficult environment. Local level circumstances also favored the Democrats. Illinois has been trending Democratic, with Democrats gaining control of both chambers of the state legislature and all state-wide elected offices. Democrats also were gaining congressional seats in traditional Republican areas in the Chicago suburban and exurban areas.2 Charlie Cook’s Partisan Voting Index (PVI), a measure of how strongly a congressional district leans toward one political party compared to the nation as a whole, rated the 10th district as D+4.3 Further, the district lies due north of Chicago, the epicenter of Barak Obama’s political base (Figure 1). That location translated into a substantial advantage in media coverage for the Democratic congressional nominee. “Obama-mania” also translated into relatively healthy fundraising, volunteerism, and voter turnout for Democrats. Finally, the incumbent, Mark Kirk, was perceived as vulnerable after the 2006 election when he won with only 53 percent of the vote against a relatively unknown challenger. Though not a quality challenger in the usual sense, Dan Seals, went into the 2008 campaign with substantial name ______________ WAYNE P. STEGER is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at DePaul Univer- sity. The American Review of Politics, Vol. 30, Summer, 2009: 137-154 ©2009 The American Review of Politics 138 | Wayne P. Steger P. Steger Wayne | 138 Figure 1. The Illinois 10th Congressional District Playing Defense in the Illinois 10th | 139 recognition, campaign experience, and organization after having almost upset Kirk in the 2006 election.4 Seals also had the financial backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), something he lacked in his 2006 campaign. That the DCCC targeted the race is itself a strong indication that Washington handicappers saw this as a seat that could be won. One week before the election, CQ Politics declared there was “no clear favorite” and described the district as “a slightly Democratic-leaning swing district.”5 Given all the circumstances suggesting a tough race, why did Mark Kirk fare better in 2008 than he had in 2006? Several factors contributed to Kirk’s reelection in the 10th district. Mark Kirk typified an incumbent who was “running scared” in a district that does not fall neatly into the stereo- types of a “Republican” or “Democratic” district. The decentralized, prag- matic nature of American political parties help incumbents like Kirk by enabling them to deviate from national party positions on issues for which local constituency preferences are not aligned with the national party line. Incumbents like Kirk also win because they use their offices effectively to promote constituency interests and preferences. The 10th Congressional District and the 2008 Elections Most congressional elections in Illinois did reflect the expected boost for the Democratic Party consistent with national trends. Across all 19 con- gressional districts in Illinois, Barak Obama averaged more than 6.6 percent more of the presidential vote in 2008 than had Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004. Obama won a majority of the presidential vote in 16 of the 19 Illinois congressional districts, including the 10th district where he received more than 61 percent of the vote. The Democratic surge behind Obama seems to have had some coattails in most congressional districts in Illinois. Across the state, Republican congressional candidates in Republican districts won an average of 87.75 percent of the vote that they had received in 2004. Democrats picked up two open seats on the fringes of the Chicago area that were vacated by retiring Republican incumbents. Table 1 shows the district-level vote shares of the Republican and Democratic candidates for congressional and presidential elections in the 10th district since 2000. The district has split for the Republican candidate in the congressional elections while voting Democratic at the presidential level. In his first election in 2000, Kirk ran ahead of his party’s presidential candi- date by four percentage points in the 10th. In 2004, Kirk ran ahead of George W. Bush by 17 percentage points. In 2008, Kirk ran 17 percentage points ahead of John McCain in the district. Kirk took 55 percent of the congressional vote while Barak Obama took 61 percent of the presidential 140 | Wayne P. Steger Table 1. Congressional and Presidential Vote Sares of Republican Incumbent Mark Kirk, the Democratic Opponent, and the Major Party Presidential Candidates, 2000-2008 Illinois 11th Illinois 10th —Congressional Vote— —Presidential Vote— Rep. Mark Democratic Republican Democratic Republican Election Kirk Opponent Presidential Presidential Difference 2008 55% 45% 38% 61% +17 2006 53% 47% 2004 64% 36% 47% 53% +17 2002 69% 31% 2000 51% 49% 47% 51% + 4 vote in the 10th congressional district. Given the surge in the Democratic vote and the decline in the Republican vote across the state, how did Mark Kirk manage to increase his vote share over 2006 when he nearly lost to Democratic challenger Dan Seals? The answer begins with understanding that the 10th congressional district does not fall neatly into the dominant stereotypes of a “Republican” or “Democratic” district. The outcome owes in part to the characteristics of the district’s population and the mix of issue positions taken by the incum- bent. While split-ticket voting has been declining nationally for more than a decade, the decline owes mainly to increasingly homogenous congressional districts that are more solidly Democratic or Republican. Split-ticket voting remains common in moderate or swing districts like the Illinois 10th. The 10th district is often characterized as a swing district with “mod- erate” preferences—right of center on economics but left of center on social or cultural issues. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the district is the 21st ranked congressional district in terms of wealth, with a median house- hold income of $78,269 (as of 2006). A number of Fortune 500 Companies are headquartered in the district including pharmaceutical, computer, corpo- rate consulting, manufacturing, and food companies. Almost 48 percent of the district’s adult population has a college or graduate degree, and a major- ity of adults work in management, professional, or office occupations.6 It is home to a major training facility at the Great Lakes Naval Station. The dis- trict also has substantial immigrant populations, which tend to have weaker ties to either political party. The 10th district is also home to one of the larger Jewish populations in the United States. Taxes, education, the en- vironment, civil liberties, defense, and foreign policy toward Israel and the Middle East are perennially salient issues in 10th congressional elections. Playing Defense in the Illinois 10th | 141 The socio-economic and demographic composition of the district means that neither party has a lock on the loyalties of voters so frequent split-ticket voting is not surprising. Both parties have ownership of issues that appeal to voters in the district and both parties could assemble winning coalitions in the 10th. The incumbent, Mark Kirk, tailored his issue positions to an eco- nomically conservative and socially moderate constituency. Candidate Strategies: Framing the Vote Choice through a National versus Local Lens Dan Seals adopted a strategy common to many Democratic challengers across the country in 2008. Seals sought to tie his fortune to Obama and a message that emphasized change.7 Seals also sought to tie Mark Kirk to the Republican Administration of George W. Bush. Seal’s advertisements, mailings, and press releases sought to tie Kirk to Bush, so that a vote for Kirk would be a vote for “more of the same.” That strategy, however, did not appear to resonate with a majority of voters in the 10th district. The incumbent had already established a solid reputation as a moderate Repub- lican, and he created even more separation between himself and his party in Washington, DC, between the 2006 and 2008 elections. Further, Kirk sought to tie Seals to widely-perceived corruption of the Illinois Democratic Party, which was headed by a governor rumored to be on the verge of impeach- ment and who was under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department before the election.8 Kirk ran ads criticizing Seals’ ethics thereby associating him by common label with other, impugned Democrats in Illinois. For his part, Mark Kirk had long cultivated an image of a “moderate” Republican with a mixture of economic conservatism and more moderate social positions. Kirk’s record, webpage, direct mail, and advertisements emphasized issue positions and priorities that match those of most voters in the 10th district. Kirk supports tax cuts and opposes tax increases, which plays well in one of the most affluent districts in the country. The 10th is home to a naval reserve base and a veterans’ hospital, and Kirk consistently supports more spending on defense and veterans’ health care.
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