WASHINGTON - Sierra Club announced Monday morning that it has launched an aggressive regional ad campaign calling out Illinois’ U.S. Senator Mark Kirk for voting against public health and clean air in Congress by attacking the Clean Power Plan three times in June. The nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization kicked off a weeklong newspaper and digital ad blitz with a full-page advertisement in the print edition of Monday’s Daily Herald, the largest exclusively suburban newspaper in the Chicago area, which serves 90 communities in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties.

“Senator Mark Kirk voted repeatedly against the health of Illinois families by attacking the Clean Power Plan, the first ever steps to limit carbon pollution from dirty, coal-fired power plants” said Liz Perera, Sierra Club Climate Policy Director. “The Clean Power Plan’s efforts to curb carbon pollution will help prevent up to 6,600 deaths and up to 150,000 asthma attacks in children every year. That's why the majority of Illinoisans support the Clean Power Plan. Senator Kirk needs to stand with his constituents, not with the polluters that are hurting their health.”

During a June 2015 meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Kirk voted to block key parts of the Clean Power Plan on two key amendments, and ultimately voted in favor of the final bill in committee despite it including multiple attacks designed to weaken the plan and other clean air safeguards.

In addition to the full-page newspaper advertisement, Sierra Club is running targeted digital advertisements throughout the week in both Chicago and Washington, D.C, highlighting Kirk’s votes and urging Illinois residents to call on the Senator to change his tune.

The Sierra Club ads come two weeks after a video ad campaign launched by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) in late June, which call out Kirk for his attacks on clean air, saying he “stands with polluters, not Illinois” and that he voted against “our health and environment.”