Alexi Giannoulias Launches Anti-Mark Kirk April Fool's Ad (VIDEO)

As Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk takes heat on both sides of the aisle for comments he made about trying to repeal health care reform, his opponent Alexi Giannoulias is trying to tell Illinois voters that Kirk is not as "independent" as he claims to be.

After nearly two weeks of asking Kirk for answers regarding his stance on repealing health reform, (which reporters had little luck getting this week) Giannoulias is now accusing Kirk of protecting corporate interests.

"Republican Congressman Mark Kirk has spent over a decade in Congress catering to corporate special interests," Giannoulias campaign site claims. "He's taken money from insurance companies, big banks, and lobbyists and then voted their way. Our nation can't afford to give corporate special interests another vote in the U.S. Senate."

Aside from a clock counting down how long it's been since Kirk pledged to repeal health reform, a faux Facebook page that shows Kirk paling around with John Boehner and Club for Growth, Giannoulias' campaign on Thursday released an "April Fool's" ad bashing Kirk for claiming to be moderate. (Watch the ad below)

At a Tuesday campaign appearance, Kirk dodged questions about his health reform pledge--saying "I voted against it, but we lost. My job is to explain how this will affect voters."

His faux Facebook pals Club for Growth did not seem pleased by his statement in real life:

"He said that he's going to do this," Club for Growth spokesman Mike Connolly told Greg Sargent. "We expect him to live up to his pledge."

Meanwhile, Giannoulias may not have a pleasant April ahead of him. The one thing Kirk did tell reporters on Tuesday is that the Giannoulias family bank would "collapse" on April 23--whether the $2,526,691 Kirk allegedly took from corporations and federal lobbyists will trump that remains to be seen.

Watch the April Fool's ad here: