Republicans have a difficult time with the truth.
Whether it’s lying about the public option, denying the existence of global climate change, making up wild claims about President Obama’s birth certificate, or misleading a nation into a war of choice, the modern Republican Party often acts as if it’s allergic to objective fact.
In this battle for President Obama’s former seat in the U.S. Senate, Congressman Mark Kirk and his Republican allies are again in full swing, peddling lies and deliberate distortions.
To hear the NRSC, RNC and Republican Congressman Mark Kirk tell it, you would think that my candidacy was about slick banking deals and unsavory mob figures.
But that’s a lie.
My candidacy is about you.
It’s about all of you who have worked hard all your lives towards your own version of the American dream. It’s about those who dared to hope in 2008, and who are aching to see the impact of real change in 2010 and beyond.
It’s about my late father, who came to America with nothing, and who started a small community bank on the north side of Chicago to help other immigrant families achieve their dreams.
Mark Kirk is attempting to make Broadway Bank's financial difficulties an issue in this campaign.
But I won’t let him lie about my record, about my family, or about his own record and culpability in getting us into the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Our campaign has launched a website, TruthAboutAlexi.com, to fight back against the right-wing smear machine.
Let there be no mistake—with a Senate that will vote on health care reform, possible Supreme Court appointments, climate change bills, and more—there is too much at stake for Democrats to stay quiet in the face of GOP attacks.
I refuse to stand idly by while Mark Kirk—who has taken millions from Wall Street, lobbyists, and corporate PACS—challenges my integrity. I will let no attack go answered, and no lie will be allowed to breathe.
So let’s get the truth out there.
THE FACTS ABOUT BROADWAY BANK
I grew up in my father's business, from before I could look over the teller's desk. I saw my dad pour his soul into his daily work, and I saw how his success touched and improved so many lives.
I followed in my father's footsteps after law school and worked at the business he started from scratch. But in 2005, I left to pursue my own dream of a career in public service. At the time I left the bank, Broadway Bank was one of the best-performing banks in Illinois.
I haven't worked at my family's business for over four years, and when I left it was profitable and well-capitalized.
Now, years later, the business my late father built from the ground up is struggling to stay afloat, just like countless of small and mid-sized businesses across the country. You can read our extensive fact check on Broadway Bank and my tenure there here.
But that hasn't stopped Congressman Kirk from launching negative, reckless attacks about my father's bank. It hasn't stopped him from ignoring the fact that my family's business, just like so many others, is suffering because of the reckless Bush policies he supported and voted for every time that got us into this economic mess.
The reality is that community banks are hurting because big banks were allowed to treat our financial system like a playground sandbox. Mark Kirk sat idly by while Wall Street firms consolidated power, evaded government oversight, and played around with people’s money for fun and profit.
THE TRUTH ABOUT MARK KIRK
Far too often, those purportedly representing us in Washington are completely oblivious to the real-world effect of their policies. To Mark Kirk, the community businesses that are struggling because D.C. dropped the ball are just another political football. To me, and to the small business owners I talk to every day on the trail, it's all too real.
I haven't worked at the bank for years, but I know that Kirk's reckless economic policies that benefit Wall Street fat cats just aren't working for community businesses like Broadway Bank.
And I know that we won't get Washington working for families and small business again until we vote insiders like Mark Kirk out of D.C.
While I’ve worked my whole life to help working families, while I was working as State Treasurer of Illinois investing in small business, promoting scholarship programs for the children of fallen soldiers, and protecting the people of Illinois from Wall Street abuses, Mark Kirk was in D.C., playing the typical Washington game.
Like so many of his Republican friends, Mark Kirk has taken millions from Wall Street, and then has taken their side on the House floor.
He’s voted against stricter regulation of Wall Street banks, against reigning outrageous executive bonuses financed by taxpayers, and against holding insurance companies accountable.
He is the perfect embodiment of the modern Republican Party: obstructing progress at any cost for the sake of political gain.
So the question we have is this: will we allow one of corporate America’s best buddies into the Senate? Do we want a Senator Kirk who will take their cash and do their bidding?
Or do Democrats want a progressive Senator who knows and cares deeply about the effect of Wall Street’s recklessness on American families?
Help me fight back against the right-wing smear machine. Help us get one more vote for the public option, one more vote for accountability, and one more vote for working families in the U.S. Senate.
Please check out TruthAboutAlexi.com and my website, AlexiforIllinois.com.