Today's debate presented a clear choice for Illinois voters between a dishonest D.C. politician who refuses to stand by his Republican voting record and a leader who has stood up for Illinois families and small businesses. Below are 10 quotes from today's debate, representing 10 reasons why Alexi deserves your vote:

1. ON THE FOCUS OF HIS CAMPAIGN: "The question is, going forward, what more can we do? We focused our campaign on creating private sector jobs, we've talked about infrastructure, we've talked about moving forward with the next generation of clean energy, clean energy jobs, tax breaks to small businesses, a job creation tax credit for small business, a payroll tax holiday for low to moderate income workers, doing everything we can to get that $1.5 trillion that's, quite frankly, sitting on the sidelines in the private sector, encouraging and promoting economic growth."

2. ON THE NEED FOR FRESH LEADERSHIP: "We have typical Washington, D.C., politicians who have forgotten what it's like on Main Street. I'm the only candidate in this race who's worked in the private sector. Congressman Kirk has been in Washington, D.C., for 20 years. If you're thrilled with out-of-control spending, the out-of-control borrowing that has become the Washington, D.C., ethos, then Congressman Kirk is your man [...] "

3: ON HOW TO CREATE JOBS:  "What we've done in, in the State Treasurer's Office, for example, low interest loan programs, increasing access to capital. One of the biggest problems out there that I hear from my friends in the business community is that there's no lending, that it's tough to get a loan today. Even if you have a line of credit, it's being tapped. So one of the first things that we need to do is find ways to increase liquidity, to increase access to capital, to make sure that $1.8 trillion that is sitting on the sidelines in the banking system, which can be leveraged to at least $18 trillion, we need to do everything we can to focus on that. We need to focus on green jobs: solar, wind, geothermal, biomass. There's so many opportunities. But other countries like China are getting ahead of the curve."

4. ON RECKLESS REPUBLICAN ECONOMIC POLICIES: "This is why this race is so important. This is a fundamental public policy difference between myself and Congressman Kirk. He says he's a, a fiscal hawk. Look, the congressman has told some real whoppers during this campaign, but that may be the biggest one of all. He voted for every single one of the Bush budgets, which doubled our national debt. He voted to increase his own pay six times. He voted for the bridge to nowhere twice. He voted to raise the debt ceiling four times. The list goes on and on. So, Congressman, saying you're a fiscal hawk doesn't necessarily make it true, and your voting record proves that it's not true. The question is, for the Congressman, the $700 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, we don't have $700 billion. So my question to the congressman is, which country do you plan on borrowing $700 billion from? The Saudis, China? We, we can't afford it. And that's one of the problems, quite frankly, with Washington, D.C., this overborrowing, overspending."

Alexi Giannoulias debates Republican Congressman Mark Kirk on Meet the Press on October 10, 2010.

5. ON PROTECTING SOCIAL SECURITY: "I am personally not in favor of, of increasing [Social Security's] age limit...I do think we do need to look at, on the revenue side, different options, maybe increasing the taxable wage base, finding ways to get more revenue. But I'm all for strengthening Social Security, not diminishing it."

6. ON HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM, WHICH REINS IN HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES: "The difference is he wants to repeal it, I want to reform it and fix it and make sure that it works for small businesses and for families."

7. ON BEING PRINCIPLED IN HIS POLICY STANDS: "The people of Illinois may not always agree with everything I say, but they'll always know where I stand...I'll tell you where I stand, and that's leadership. That's what the people of Illinois want. That's what I'll give them for the rest of my career. And I think that is a, a fundamental difference in principles, in values and morals, between myself and the congressman."

8. ON FIGHTING TO SAVE ILLINOIS JOBS: "When we fought and saved jobs at Hart Schaffner Marx, one of the things we did was go after Wells Fargo. We looked at them and said, listen, you can't let this company falter, you can't let them fail."

9. ON TRUE INDEPENDENCE: "You know, the, the congressman always uses the word independent. The truth is the only thing he's been independent of in this race is the truth."

10. ON THE ISSUE IN THIS RACE: "This is an incredibly important race. We need some fresh leadership, we need some new ideas, we need to help create jobs. People in Illinois are getting crushed, crushed by this recession. Washington, D.C., isn't working. And my question is why in the world do we send the same people who created this mess back to Washington, D.C.? That's why the people of Illinois need, need some new ideas and some fresh voices."