The Tribune editorial today is entitled “194 days and counting“
Here it is barely spring, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich already is resorting to the sort of negative campaigning traditionally reserved for, well, late spring.
Candidates in the last three governor campaigns have restrained themselves until at least June before launching televised attacks on their opponents. But Blagojevich, who has a lot of campaign money to spend, started slinging mud at Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka on April 20. The first of his anti-Topinka ads was taped March 25, four days after the primary. […]
There are 194 days until the election, and it’s getting tiresome already. Are we really going to have to listen to this sort of thing for six more months?
The AP has a summary of the governor’s new ads here and an article here.
esurrecting a tactic that helped him win office four years ago, Gov. Rod Blagojevich stepped up efforts Wednesday to link his Republican opponent to the failures of former governor and convicted felon George Ryan.
Blagojevich is running television ads showing Ryan side by side with Republican candidate Judy Baar Topinka. The ads accuse Topinka, the state treasurer, of letting Illinois’ budget deficits and pension debt skyrocket during Ryan’s tenure.
“Topinka didn’t do her job as treasurer and now she wants a promotion? What’s she thinking?” one ad asks.
The Blagojevich campaign also held a news conference to point out that Topinka, who now distances herself from Ryan, once described him as a “damn decent guy” whom she loved dearly.
Topinka called the strategy a sign that Blagojevich is “desperate.”
“He’s spending a great deal of money to vilify me in whatever way he can. It doesn’t hold any water,” she said, noting that the treasurer has no role in setting the state budget.