Oberweis Pleased To Have Kirk Support In Senate Race [AUDIO]

Jim Anderson -- Illinois Radio Network

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis is pleased that Sen. Mark S. Kirk (R-Ill.) is now supporting him.

Kirk initially said he didn’t want to campaign against Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) because they have a working relationship that’s good for Illinois, and because Durbin supported Kirk while Kirk recovered from a stroke in 2012.

This week, though, Kirk changed his mind. Oberweis said he did have a conversation with Kirk about this, but it was Kirk doing the talking. “I don’t think I can tell Sen. Kirk anything; it’s more I listened to his thoughts, and I did talk to him a week or 10 days ago, something like that, certainly after those comments, so I understood what his position was,” Oberweis said today at a press availability with several Republican state senators in Glen Ellyn.

Oberweis says Kirk is putting together a coordinated campaign for Republicans statewide, in the races for Senate, governor, Congress and the state legislature, and he’s glad to be part of that. He didn’t specify what kind of help he himself would be getting from Kirk, but said he might be able to help the campaign appeal to independents and even Democrats in Illinois: