The Giannoulias ad was filmed inside the Hartmarx factory in Chicago. It recalls how earlier this year the Illinois treasurer threatened to remove $8 billion worth of state deposits from Wells Fargo if the bank went ahead with its plan to liquidate the bankrupt factory.
"We sent a message to this bank. If you want to do business in Illinois, you have to save these jobs," the ad says. "The bankers, the lobbyists, the power-brokers, they've owned Washington for too long."
Candidate David Hoffman began his broadcast television campaign Wednesday. He will spend tens of thousands of dollars initially, trying to familiarize voters, especially those downstate, with Hoffman's record as Chicago's inspector general, the city's top corruption fighter.
"You see, I've always been independent from the politicians and insiders who protect each other. And I've never backed down from what I knew was right," Hoffman says in his ad.
Hoffman and Giannoulias followed Jacob Meister to broadcast television, where the Chicago attorney's campaign began airing commercials downstate in mid-November.
"The economy and jobs, jobs, jobs-- because that's what the people of Illinois really care about," Meister's ad says.
The only candidate without a television campaign is former Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson. But she was joined by television actress Tracee Ellis Ross during a live appearance Thursday at Chicago's Robeson High School trying to reduce the rate of teenaged pregnancies there.
"Let my opponents run their campaign, I'll run my campaign. My campaign is squarely focused on solving people's problems. That's why I'm here at Robeson High today and they're running ads on TV," said Cheryle Robinson Jackson, (D) US Senate candidate.
