Quinn ads jump on Rauner wine club membership

In the race for Illinois governor, incumbent Pat Quinn is hoping to get more political mileage from his opponents' membership in an exclusive wine club. But Republican Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel would like to put a cork on the story.

"Voters will decide whether to make a question about Bruce Rauner's membership in a club or not," Emanuel said.

Emanuel appeared uncomfortable being involved the latest controversy surrounding Rauner.

This 2010 photograph made near Rauner's Montana ranch showed Democrat Emanuel holding a bottle of Napa Valley Reserve walking with Rauner to a local restaurant.

The photo is being used in stories on Rauner's membership in an exclusive wine club with a $100,000 initiation fee that the multimillionaire candidate confirmed Tuesday.

"I have many investments and I'm a member of many clubs," Rauner said.

Within 24 hours of Rauner's confirmation, the Quinn campaign produced an Internet ad showing an overflowing wine glass and quote from the Washington Post that says, "Rauner spends more on wine than average Illinois households spend on everything."

"Freeze property taxes and require voter approval for politicians to raise them," a Rauner ad says.

In a television ad released Wednesday, Rauner's campaign tried to shift the conversation to taxes, calling Quinn "desperate" to make Rauner's business success an issue.

"Quinn wants to avoid talking about the Quinn/Madigan income tax hike, out of control property taxes and illegal political hiring that hurts our state's veterans," the ad says.

The governor's campaign called the new Rauner commercial on property taxes "deceptive."

Meanwhile, Emanuel, a Quinn supporter, tried again to distance himself from his pal Rauner's politics.

"I'm more interested not in what he does privately but his public policy positions," Emanuel said.