Mark Kirk is having a rough summer.

The Republican congressman from the Chicago suburbs is running for the Illinois Senate seat formerly occupied by President Obama, but he is currently spendinghis days on the campaign trail attempting to placate a conservative base furious over his vote for the House climate bill.

The moderate Kirk has long been viewed as the GOP's best hope of recapturing a Senate seat in the solidly blue state. But in the couple of weeks since announcing his Senate bid, Kirk has been repeatedly hit from the right over support for the climate bill and analysts say it is possible the issue could dog him throughout the campaign.

"Our members are very upset with that vote -- we have yet to receive a good answer and in our opinion there is no good answer for that vote," said Joe Calomino, director of the Illinois branch of Americans for Prosperity, an organization that advocates for fiscally conservative policies. "On a statewide level, that vote is an anti-free market vote."

The furor over the climate bill started almost immediately after the late June vote, as numerous conservative commentators and bloggers harshly criticized the eight House Republicans who voted in favor of the bill and in the minds of some provided the votes needed for passage (Greenwire, June 30).

Some of that criticism has faded in recent weeks as conservatives have turned their attention to health care and other topics and as the climate debate moved to the Senate. But the issue continues to haunt Kirk, who now has to explain his vote not just to constituents but to conservative voters across the state -- including to those in the coal-producing regions of southern Illinois.

Kirk held at least six meetings with constituents in the weeks following the vote, with one such meeting taking place just before he announced his Senate bid.

More than 120 individuals appeared at the forum with those in attendance showing disappointment and frustration over the vote, according to a blog entry written by prominent Illinois conservative and former GOP state Rep. Penny Pullen.

"Most of the comments and questions were respectful, but disappointment, sense of betrayal and outright anger was apparent," Pullen wrote. "A high/low point came when a citizen rose, told him he'd always been 'her man' and then informed him she would do everything she could to defeat his next candidacy."

Newspapers in the Chicago area and elsewhere across the state -- not to mention a number of conservative blogs -- have likewise been filled with comments from voters accusing Kirk of casting a vote that betrayed Republican principles and will harm the state.

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