You've probably seen Republican candidate for Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner on your TV set, dressed in a Carhardt jacket sometime over the past few months.
The financier-turned-candidate, has been running advertisements introducing himself to voters as a political outsider set on shaking up Springfield for months. His most recent entry focuses on his $18 watch and his outsider status.
But Rauner's not sure what his next message should be, so he's asking social media users to decide for him. The candidate plans to release 7 different spots on his web site Monday and wants his supporters to choose from among the offerings and pick one for a TV schedule.
"Your standard campaign is just going to run an ad on TV and let it go," Rauner said in an interview with NBC 5 Monday, hours before he released the videos. "We're trying to think outside the box.
"We're going to integrate our social media campaign with our TV schedule," he said in a nod to the importance of social media on campaigns. Rauner wants to entice younger people to get behind his outsider message.
The details of the outsider message, however, remain fuzzy. Rauner, who regularly speaks out about governmental unions as a scourge on the state, appears to have sided with the the unions in rejecting a recently passed pension deal. He favors a move to a 401K style system.
He doesn't appear eager to define himself against his GOP opponents, either, and prefers to attack Pat Quinn in generalities.
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"The reality is that Pat Quinn is the worst governor in the country," he repeats often.
If elected, Rauner said he'd like to draw on ideas honed in Wisconsin under Scott Walker and in Indiana under Mitch Daniels -- which would place him at ideological odds with the state's powerful unions.
To help choose Rauner's next ad, visit www.brucerauner.com beginning Monday at 2 p.m.
