Republican Bill Brady is demanding an apology from Governor Pat Quinn for remarks made by State Senator Ricky Hendon.
Part of the Democratic campaign strategy has always been to paint Republican Brady as a rightwing zealot who could never govern moderate to liberal Illinois. The Brady campaign says, on Saturday, one prominent supporter of Democrat Quinn took the strategy a few words too far.
As a still-smarting State Senator Bill Brady campaigned at a North Side hot dog restaurant Monday, he repeated his demand that Governor Quinn's campaign apologize for remarks made during a Saturday Democratic get-out-the-vote rally.
"The people of Illinois, I think, are looking for an apology from the Quinn campaign. It starts with Governor Quinn renouncing Rickey Hendon's involvement. There's no room for what Rickey Hendon did," said Brady.
What Senator Rickey Hendon did Saturday was attach several labels to his Illinois Senate colleague Brady:
"I've never served with such an idiotic, racist, sexist, homophobic person in my life," Hendon said Saturday.
Governor Quinn disavowed Hendon's remarks Saturday shortly after the state senator made them.
Monday, the governor and his supporters refused to apologize to Senator Brady for words spoken by another elected official.
"Governor Quinn is not running on what Senator Hendon said," said Danny Davis.
"Even if you disagree strongly with somebody, you don't call them names, I don't agree with that," Quinn said. "Having said that, I think Senator Brady has a lot of apologizing to do for his record...What does he stand for -- cutting the minimum wage, he wants to cut our schools by a billion dollars, he wants to take away scholarships from students."
Senator Brady said the governor is using Rod Blagojevich-style campaign tactics.
"It's just a continuation of Blagojevich tactics," said Brady. "Governor Quinn is proving that he was schooled under Blagojevich and continues under those policies. Illinois is looking for a clean break."
On WLS radio Monday, Senator Hendon apologized to the people of Illinois if they were offended by his words Saturday. But he did not apologize to Senator Brady for what he said was "telling the truth about Brady's voting."
Some Republicans were angered because they remember seeing Governor Quinn hug Senator Hendon after the speech.
