Candidate for U.S. Senate, Mark Kirk (GNOC)

December 07, 2009

The 2010 campaign to fill Barrack Obama’s Senate seat is heating up as the results of this race will determine the dominant power in Congress. Understanding the importance of such a high stakes race, Gen Next invited the republican contender Congressman Mark Kirk for a roundtable discussion. Kirk reviewed intense issues such as healthcare, education, and social security but the focal point of discussion was foreign policy and national security. As a former Naval intelligence officer, Congressman Kirk expressed his concerns with the current security of our nation and the proposed plans for our military presence in Afghanistan. Kirk disagreed with the 2011 withdrawal date of our troops because that would force training to hasten and history shows that poorly trained units collapse. He proposed a short-term goal of re-expanding the space we control and a long-term goal of doubling the size of the Afghan police and army. As one of the founders of the United States House of Representatives' China Working Group, Kirk discussed the issues of piracy in Somalia by the Chinese Navy and the theft of intellectual property on a comprehensive basis. On education, Kirk suggested teaching foreign language in the second and third grade, which would raise the set of expectations at a younger age resulting in accelerated gifted education. When asked by Members about the 2010 campaign, Congressman Kirk explained that electing a Republican to office will send a strong message to the White House. This program proved to be invigorating and extremely informative. We would like to thank Mark Kirk for his time and valuable insight. Also, a big thanks to Gen Next member Michael McClellan for hosting this program at the Newmeyer & Dillion LLP.