Andrea Zopp for US Senate

The Capitol Fax writes about the head of the Chicago Urban League Andrea Zopp considering a run against current US Senator Mark Kirk. He writes about the many negatives if she makes her leap in next year's race. Do you like her chances?

Sun-Times exclusive: Sen. Kirk won't be talking about race in the future

Lynn Sweet writes more about Sen. Kirk's comments made in a newspaper interview earlier this week:

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., up for re-election, told the Chicago Sun-Times he won’t be talking about race or ethnicity in the future.

“I would say that whenever a targeted member talks about race or ethnicity, it is impossible for him to get it right. So I’ll leave it at that,” Kirk said.

Kirk is in one of the biggest Senate contests in the 2016 cycle. He is a major Democratic target and his main competition is Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.

Democrats jumped on Kirk after he made a comment about African-Americans at the end of a Peoria Journal Star interview – about how “we drive faster” through a black community.

And then Sweet got Chicago State President Wayne Watson to provide a quote:

When Kirk was running for Senate, he met with Watson and asked what he could do to help. To Watson’s surprise, he told me Kirk called “the day after he won.”

Together, they created what would become the Entrepreneurial Idol program at CSU.

Budding entrepreneurs compete for $7,500 and a chance to showcase their plan to business leaders and government officials. This year marks the fourth competition.

“The issue is not driving through the black community. The issue is what he’s done. . . . In this instance, Sen. Kirk’s actions . . . speak louder than his words, however one may want to interpret,” Watson said.

Read the whole thing and let us know what you think.

HuffPost: Mark Kirk Says People Drive Faster Through Black Neighborhoods

Sen. Mark Kirk

Disappointing coming from a Republican US Senator who just so happened to get elected to a seat once held by not only the current President of the United States but also the first Black woman elected to that presitigious body. Not only that he toured Englewood almost two years back:

The comment, with its racial undertones, came during a sit-down interview with the Peoria Journal Star and followed a question about how to encourage business development in Kirk's home state.

“I want to make sure we have elected people constantly looking at helping the African-American community,” Kirk said. “With this state and all of its resources, we could sponsor a whole new class of potential innovators like George Washington Carver and eventually have a class of African-American billionaires. That would really adjust income differentials and make the diversity and outcome of the state much better so that the black community is not the one we drive faster through." [emphasis added.]

The notion that people hit the gas when driving through black neighborhoods is a common racial stereotype about urbanization and criminal behavior among African-Americans. The fact that an elected senator from a state with a sizable black population would make such a comment was deemed unfortunate by at least one African-American leader in Illinois.

"I think what he was trying to say is, he was trying to relate that to crime. But boy, it was a poor choice of phraseology," said George Mitchell, president of the NAACP's Illinois State Conference.

Later a response from Sen. Kirk's office was added to this article:

Eleni Demertzis, Kirk's press secretary, emailed the following response to questions about the senator's comments from last week: "Anyone watching network news in Chicago is aware of the frequent killings and violence that affects various communities in Illinois. Senator Kirk is active in fighting gang violence, keeping assault weapons off the streets, and working within the African-American community to find aspiring entrepreneurs. No one can question Senator Kirk’s commitment to the African-American community."

What are your thoughts?

Kirk/Rush tours the Englewood neighborhood

Via Sen. Kirk's Instagram

The pic to the left shows US Congressman Bobby Rush and US Senator Mark Kirk listening to Englewood families during their neighborhood tour yesterday. It appears they still disagree on some of the solutions, they at least publicly vow to solve the issues that exist in Englewood. During their tour there was no press and it was by bus with a police escort.

Below are some various videos of coverage of this tour. NBC Chicago has the concluding press conference.

Tribune: Rush, Kirk to tour Englewood on Thursday, talk violence

US Sen. Mark Kirk

I look forward to seeing the press conference after the tour. It would be interesting to see Sen. Kirk's reflections on seeing Englewood. Hopefully something will come of this.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush is making good on his promise to show U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk around crime-ridden areas on Chicago's South Side.

On Thursday, according to a news release from Rush's office, the lawmakers from Illinois are scheduled to tour the Englewood neighborhood and discuss urban violence, obstacles to economic growth and other community needs.

Rush's promise arose as a peace gesture after Kirk in May called for jailing all Gangster Disciples members. Rush ridiculed the notion, calling it an "upper-middle-class, elitist white-boy solution" to Chicago's crime problems.
...
Last week, Kirk said that although he still supports mass arrests of gang members, he used the 18,000 figure to shock Illinoisans into realizing how extensive the gang issue is in the state. Kirk said he rode along with Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood last month.

Hopefully pics of the tour will be posted to the Senator's various social networking accounts such as Twitter, Flickr, or even Instagram!