Oberweis: Durbin ‘Novelties’ Comment Insulting To Chicago Pastors [VIDEO]

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Oberweis stopped by our studios this morning to talk about the state of his campaign with about six weeks to go until Election Day. Polling generally shows the Republican down by 7-12 points, within striking distance of the incumbent, Sen. Dick Durbin.

Durbin gave a long interview to the Chicago Sun-Times over the weekend, in which he touched on a broad range of topics including the IRS targeting scandal and the recent support the Oberweis campaign has picked up from African-American pastors in Chicago.

Durbin claimed that that nobody in the state cares about the IRS scandal, calling the topic a "dog whistle for the Tea Party Republicans." As for the endorsements from the pastors, the Sun-Times summarized:

Durbin was particularly animated when talking about recent endorsements Oberweis has touted in the African American community. Two ministers have supported Oberweis, something Durbin referred to as a “novelty.”

In an off-air interview here at the WROK studios, we asked Oberweis to respond to both topics:

Coming tomorrow morning, we'll post the full audio from our on-air interview with Oberweis.