Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dawn Clark Netsch has launched a new set of TV ads that continue to hammer away at Republican Gov. Jim Edgar by referring to the recent problems with the Illinois Toll Highway Authority as, “Jim Edgar’s tollway scandal.”
Edgar is expected to retaliate with his own set of television ads starting as soon as Wednesday, but campaign manager Andy Foster would not say whether those commercials would respond to the current Netsch blitz.
The Netsch ads are similar to the radio commercials her campign ran over Labor Day. They recapped the helicopter rides taken at state expense by Edgar-ally Robert Hickman, former executive director of the toll authority, who resigned under fire in April, receiving a hefty pension payout after working for the agency for only three years.
The TV ads use newspaper headlines to support Netsch’s contention in the commercial that “the tollway scandal has cost us millions . . . and it’s Jim Edgar who’s responsible.”
Foster said Netsch was skirting the truth by omitting the fact that Edgar acted quickly to install a new tollway authority director and called for the elimination of the pension that benefited Hickman.
Foster accused Netsch of betraying her image as being above the political fray and a “straight shooter” by running “sleazy” ads that “attack Jim Edgar’s integrity.”
“But if I were basing my entire campaign on abolishing the death penalty and raising income taxes by 42 percent, maybe I’d do that too,” Foster said. “They don’t have a plan they can put on television.”
Netsch has run commercials explaining her tax and education plans, and Edgar’s previous commercials have omitted the part of her tax plan that would lower property taxes.
The new Netsch ads say that two of Edgar’s nephews are on the tollway payroll. Foster said one of the nephews is currently on the staff, “is qualified and is doing a fine job.”
The $250,000 television ad campaign is expected to run one week, said Gail Handleman, Netsch’s spokeswoman, but it is likely she will stay on the air with a series of ads from now through the Nov. 8 election, Handleman said.
Netsch is also picking up financial steam, according to Handleman, raising $57,000 in just one evening last week at a rally by gay and lesbian voters, but still may be outspent by Edgar by a ratio of 5 to 1.