Federal records show that Illinois television stations will begin to air ads tomorrow, paid for by Governor Bruce Rauner's political action committee.
When the depths of the dispute between RepublicanGov.Raunerand the General Assembly's Democratic leaders really became public at the end of last month, Senate President JohnCullertonsaid the governor had warned a media blitz was on the way.
"He made it clear that in the next few weeks he's going to launch a multi-million dollar negative ad campaign," Cullerton said then.
That prediction appears to be coming true.
Illinois TV stations are reporting that Rauner's Turnaround Illinois PAC has purchased thousands of dollars of commercial time. Heading into Monday evening, television stations in Bloomington, Champaign, Peoria, Rockford and the Quad Cities had filed paperwork showing media buys from the Turnaround PAC, but the media buy is expected to go statewide.
Former GOP Gov. Jim Edgar says the strategy could prolong the budget impasse, saying Monday morning "I fear that they could … cause the Democrats not to come to the table, maybe to dig in more."
There's been no public release of the ads yet, but some media reports say they'll attack House Speaker Michael Madigan, something Rauner has been doing in public appearances for weeks.
Here's an episode of The Players, in which Amanda Vinicky discusses this latest development with Rachel Otwell:
The Players podcast for 6/16/15
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