Medicare

Kirk Releases Snapchat Filter Tying Duckworth to Blagojevich

Sen. Mark Kirk’s campaign released a Snapchat filter this week that ties his opponent, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, to incarcerated former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Sen. Mark Kirk’s campaign released a Snapchat filter this week that ties his opponent, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, to incarcerated former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich appointed Duckworth as the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs in 2006, shortly after she lost to Rep. Peter Roskam in her first Congressional bid. The Kirk campaign has repeatedly tried to link Duckworth and Blagojevich.

The filter features an animation of Duckworth and Blagojevich holding a sign.

“Blagojevich + Tammy,” the filter reads. “Costing taxpayers since 2006.”

The Kirk campaign claimed they are working to integrate new social media platforms into their strategy.

“We are committed to running the most technologically advanced campaign that is strong on fundamentals,” Kirk spokesman Kevin Artl said in a statement. “Not only are we delivering our message via the latest social mediums, we are also crushing Duckworth on the ground game with a team that has already knocked on over 100,000 doors and made over 1 million phone calls to Illinois voters.”

Duckworth’s campaign scoffed at the filter.

“Republican Mark Kirk is getting desperate to hide his record of kowtowing to Wall Street and Washington lobbyists at the expense of Illinois families,” Democratic Party of Illinois spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement. “If Kirk spent half as much time traveling the state of Illinois as Tammy has, he would know Illinois voters would rather talk about how he’s rubber-stamped bad trade deals, protected tax breaks for outsourcing, and tried to turn Medicare into a voucher system."

Kirk and Duckworth remain locked in one of the nation's most highly-contested Senate races.

Meanwhile, one of Kirk's allies is pushing to get two other candidates kicked off the ticket, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Michael Bigger, a Republican state central committeeman for the 18th Congressional District and Stark County Republican chairman, filed objections against Chad Koppie and Eric Conklin this month. Koppie represents the Constitution Party, while Conklin filed as an independent.

Neither campaign was willing to comment on the petitions. However, according to an unnamed GOP insider, both sets of petitions were tens of thousands of signatures short.

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