Democrats lose Obama's former Illinois Senate seat

CHICAGO — Voters in President Barack Obama's home state rejected his friend and his policies Tuesday, giving his old Senate seat to a Republican.

Mark Kirk, a congressman and Obama critic, narrowly defeated Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a basketball buddy of the president who would have been a strong ally in Washington.

With 99 percent of the vote counted, Kirk had 48 percent to Giannoulias' 46 percent.

"A tsunami just hit the heartland," Kirk exulted in his victory speech.

Obama and his White House team campaigned hard for Giannoulias, hoping to avoid perhaps the most politically embarrassing loss on a night of losses for Democrats.

Kirk urged Obama to work with him "to move the country back to right of center."

The Senate campaign was a bitter exchange of charges and countercharges.

Giannoulias faced attacks over his family's failed bank, which gave loans to two men involved in organized crime. Meanwhile, Kirk was forced to apologize after the disclosure that he had exaggerated his military accomplishments.

In his concession speech, Giannoulias said Kirk had promised he would never forget who he's fighting for in Washington.

"I think he will make a good senator. I think he will make a strong senator. He will help a lot of people," Giannoulias said.

Exit polling found that more than a third of Illinois voters considered neither Kirk nor Giannoulias to be honest and trustworthy.

Trust may have been especially important in the race because of its links to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The Democratic governor was removed from office in disgrace after federal prosecutors alleged he tried to sell the appointment as Obama's temporary Senate replacement.

Giannoulias played professional basketball in Greece and became a friend and basketball partner of Obama's. Encouraged by the future president, he ran for Illinois treasurer and won on the strength of his experience as an executive at his family's Broadway Bank.

Four years later, he set his sights on winning Obama's former Senate seat. But his banking experience worked against him when the bank failed and was taken over by federal regulators. Giannoulias also had to explain — again and again — his role in the bank's loans to two people with ties to organized crime and to corrupt political insider Antoin "Tony" Rezko.