Bruce Rauner has already spent far more on his gubernatorial campaign than any of the other candidates, most of it on TV ads. According to Lee Enterprises’ statehouse correspondent Kurt Erickson:
He not only has a lot of money to start with, but he’s been raking in the contributions.
Hoping to get on the radar of voters across the state, Rauner has been plunking down some big dollars for advertising.
According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, Rauner has the top two largest expenditures thus far in 2013. All told, he spent $749,205 on two ad buys in June alone.
By comparison, Gov. Pat Quinn spent the second biggest chunk of change among the six gubernatorial candidates — $15,599 for a poll.
Here are Rauner’s TV ads. Like the candidate, they're about as exciting as watching interest accrue:
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Rauner is spending a lot of money trying to make Illinoisans think he’s a regular feller. The barn coat is supposed to give him a common touch. He also wants us to think he’s just like us because he rides a motorcycle, fishes and hunts. Never mind that most Illinoisans could never afford to pursue all three of those hobbies.
This makes one nostalgic for the days when spending a lot of money meant handing out free turkeys to voters (or free bottles of muscatel, in certain downscale wards). Nowadays, all we get are these lousy TV ads.
