An additional Republican senator has announced his support for attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch, likely giving her enough votes to be confirmed as the replacement for Eric Holder after the longest delay of an attorney general’s nomination in US history.
Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois said in a statement on Thursday that he was going to support Lynch, based on her record of fighting gang violence. As US attorney for the eastern district of New York, Lynch has prosecuted international gangs and organized-crime cases.
“I am confident from my conversation with Loretta Lynch that she will be a valuable partner in confronting the gang violence that is robbing families of their children every day in Chicago,” Kirk said the statement. “We need the help of the attorney general to fight gangs of national significance through federal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, and to address organized crime like drug and child sex trafficking.”
Kirk’s office noted that Chicago, the Illinois metropolis, “is the only major city in the United States to rank in the top five for the four major drugs distributed by Mexican cartels”, and quoted the Chicago Tribune as saying that there had been a 40% increase of shootings in Chicago since this time last year.
Democrats led by Barack Obama have expressed dismay and anger over the delay on the Lynch nomination, which depends for a vote on the consent of Senate Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Republicans have declined to bring the Lynch vote in part out of objections to Obama’s immigration policy, which Lynch said in her confirmation hearing was supported by a “reasonable” interpretation of the law.
Lynch was first nominated in November, making the delay in voting five months long – and counting – by some measurements. (She had to be re-nominated when the new Congress was sworn in in January, technically making the delay more like three months.)
Congress is currently in recess and will return on 13 April.
The math of Lynch’s confirmation has been complicated by the indictment this week of Democratic senator Robert Menendez on corruption charges.
He has said he would vote for her to lead the justice department, which is prosecuting him, despite previous speculation that he would sit the vote out.
Should Menendez abstain, the number of votes controlled by Democrats would move from 46 to 45, out of 100.
Five Republicans have now come out in support of Lynch. In addition to Kirk, they are Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine.
If all the votes stay in place, Lynch would get 50 votes, a clear majority should only 99 senators vote.
If there was a tie, it would be broken in her favor by Vice-President Joe Biden.
