The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Democrat Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias is trying to use Mark Kirk's approach of Sarah Palin for an endorsement against him. Giannoulias is attempting to use the Kirk/Palin incident as a fund raising tool.

A few days ago, we reported that Mark Kirk sent a letter to Governor Sarah Palin challenging her to support his candidacy for the GOP nomination for Barack Obama's old Illinois Senate seat. It seems unlikely that Kirk will receive Palin's endorsement, though. Being far, far too liberal Kirk is hardly Palin's sort of Republican.

But Giannoulias thinks that even the slightest connection with Palin will drive his fundraising. The Democrat sent the following email to his supporters (bold in the original):

We knew from the beginning of this campaign that Republicans will do anything to get their hands on President Obama’s former seat in the U.S. Senate, but now we find out that the GOP wants Sarah Palin’s help to win this race.

Yesterday, news broke that Congressman Mark Kirk, the Republican front-runner, penned a secret memo to Sarah Palin’s camp asking that Palin help out Kirk in a “quick and decisive” way.

Palin has made no secret that she’s willing to help out conservatives in their quest to damage the President. She was the leader in false rumors about the President’s health care proposals, and she’s made it clear she’s willing to throw her support around to get conservatives elected from coast to coast.

Well, not here in Illinois.

We can’t let Mark Kirk and Sarah Palin take us back to the failed, Republican policies that got us into this economic mess.

Donate $10, $20, or $50 today to help us keep the President’s seat.

If Mark Kirk thinks bringing Sarah Palin to town will help distract from his record of consistently voting for big business and against Illinois families, he’s wrong.

Donate $10, $20, or $50 and help us send a message to Mark Kirk and Sarah Palin Republicans that this seat will stay in Democratic hands.

Alexi is a progressive Democrat who will move our state and our nation forward.

And thanks to supporters like you, this campaign will be ready to take on Mark Kirk, Sarah Palin, and whomever else the GOP sends to this fight for the President’s seat.

Alexi has his own troubles, however, with his connection to all sorts of shady banking deals. Still, he seems to be the leading candidate on the Democratic side of the aisle, though word has it that the Dem. powerbrokers are not enthralled with his candidacy despite his current status as leader.