By Doug Ibendahl

I talked with State Senator Kirk Dillard late this afternoon. He confirmed that he has NOT endorsed Mark Kirk's candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Dillard stated that he has his own race to run and had not been involved in the Senate race on any level.

Dillard officially announced his candidacy for Governor earlier this month.

According to some reports, the Illinois Republican Party and Kirk's campaign had released a list of Republicans who had endorsed Mark Kirk. Dillard was wrongfully included on that list. Dillard stated that in fact he has had ZERO discussion with anyone at the State GOP or Kirk's campaign on this topic.

Champion News invites any other Republican who may have been fraudulently included by the State Party as a Kirk endorser to let us know right away. We'll be publishing the corrected list shortly.

Republican voters should consider any true endorsers pro-abortion, pro-gay agenda, and anti-2nd Amendment going forward. This will be a radical flip from what some of the listed endorsers have tried to tell Republican voters in the past.

But the simple fact is you can't stand with a radically pro-abortion, pro-gay agenda candidate without embracing those positions yourself.

For example, no Republican official who endorses Mark Kirk should ever be allowed to use the "pro-life" label again. Kirk supports even partial birth abortion. You simply can't stand with someone with that extreme view if you want to say you are pro-life.

Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party. He is Co-Founder of Republican Young Professionals (RYP).