-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicago Magazine has conducted an extensive interview with Kimberly Vertolli, Illinois GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk’s ex-wife, and the woman makes an interesting charge against one of Kirk’s current campaign operatives, Dorothy “Dodie” McCracken
Vertolli says that the campaign staffer is the one that came between them causing their divorce and is a “Svengali figure” in her former hubbies life.
Vertolli refused to assert that McCracken is in a romantic relationsjip with Mark Kirk, but she did say the woman is a “pernicious influence” on the candidate.
Here is the exchange:
CF: So at this moment, with that promise, is it your intention to support him and campaign for him?
KV: No, I will not because there’s a person who is a very pernicious force on his team who is wielding a disproportionate amount of negative influence on him. As long as she’s there, I can’t be his moral conscience.
CF: Who is that person?
KV: Her name is Dodie McCracken. She is the only member of Mark’s staff who was not invited to our wedding back in 2001. She acts as this kind of Svengali figure in his life. She had to go away.
CF: Why did she have to go away?
KV: Because Mark could either stay married to me, or she could find another place. But there wasn’t enough room for the two of us to stay in Mark’s life.
CF: Did she come back on the scene after you were divorced?
KV: Unfortunately, she never left. When Mark decided to run for the Senate, she shifted most of her attention [from other clients] to trying to control Mark and the direction of Mark’s campaign.
The whole interview is interesting and there is a part two coming. do go and read the entire piece at Chicago Magazine.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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