Bloomington State Senator Bill Brady used big majorities downstate to barely win the Republican primary for governor. His new television ad is aimed at improving Brady's name recognition north of Interstate 80 in the state's most heavily populated region.
The commercial is 30 seconds of smiles and promises, with a goal of introducing Bloomington home builder Bill Brady to the Chicagoland electorate.
"People don't know me as well in the city or in the suburbs as what they know me downstate. So this gives us an opportunity to introduce myself on TV to the voters in the Chicagoland area," Brady said.
In the ad, Brady takes a swipe at Governor Pat Quinn's plan to raise the income tax to fund education. The Republican promises to resolve the state's $13 billion deficit with cuts and new revenues generated by business and job growth spurred by tax reductions.
State budget watchdog Ralph Martire called Brady's plan to resolve the deficit without a tax increase ridiculous, pandering and nonsense.
"It is the highest hypocrisy for anybody who is serious about being governor of this state to say that we can get through our struggles in this state without a revenue enhancement," said Martire, of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
"In just the last 12 months we've lost over 200,000 jobs. That's nearly a billion dollars in annual revenue that we can bring back by reducing the tax burden, not increasing it," said Brady.
A Quinn spokeswoman says the governor's campaign will not immediately launch its own television ads in response to Brady. In a statement, the campaign contended, "Brady is the politics of the past. He has been in office for the past 17 years and has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from special interests and lobbyists".
The Quinn spokeswoman denied reports the governor's campaign lacks the money to respond to Brady immediately, because unions--upset with the governor's stance on public employee pension reform--have withheld their expected donations to the Democrat. She said contributions to the Quinn campaign are increasing day to day.
There is also some question concerning how long Senator Bradycan continue his ad campaign in the spring and summer.
Of course, all the candidates expect to make most of their media buys after Labor Day.
