Proviso Township endorsement more sign of momentum

Republican Governor candidate Bill Brady said today the endorsement of his campaign by Proviso Township Republicans shows more evidence that his message as the only proven conservative in the race is breaking though statewide.

 ”Republicans are more and more understanding that I am the only fully endorsed pro-life candidate and the only one with a consistent anti-tax record,” Brady said.  “My thanks to Committeeman Mike Corrigan and everyone in Proviso.”

 Proviso’s endorsement within the last week comes after Barrington and Elk Grove Township endorsements late last year.  In Wheeling and Northfield Townships, Brady was selected as a “preferred candidate.”  Together, the four townships usually provide close to 30,000 of the 90,000 primary votes that are typically cast in north and west Cook County. 

 Additionally, Brady received strong support from precinct captains in other townships, including Orland Township Republicans, leading to no candidate earning enough votes to be endorsed. 

 Brady’s downstate support is solidifying in the closing days of the campaign, he said.  With voters in the Chicago area taking a fresh look at his candidacy, he is closing in on a victory for authentic conservative values.

 Brady is endorsed by the Illinois Federation for Right to Life PAC and Illinois Citizens for Life PAC.  He is the only candidate formally supported by both the major statewide prolife organizations.

 ”Voters need to think 3-2-1,” Brady said. “There are three Chicago-style insiders in this race – Jim, Andy and Kirk – and two candidates who agree with me on most conservative issues but who are wholly untested.  I am the one with a real record as a conservative and the one will give Illinois a clean break from the politics of the past.”

Brady on Schillerstrom dropping out of GOP race for Governor

“Bob Schillerstrom’s endorsement of Jim Ryan today is as predictable as the dead voting in Chicago.  It was inevitable he would throw his support behind either Jim Ryan or Kirk Dillard.  Anything to stop real reform.

“Schillerstrom tells us Jim Ryan will be ‘an advocate for the taxpayer, questioning the status quo in state government and fighting to bring real change to Springfield culture.’

“In fact, Ryan and Schillerstrom cut a deal with Chicago interests in 2007 to impose a sales tax increase on voters in DuPage.  Jim Ryan actually headed up the Schillerstrom’s pro-tax committee (“DuPage tax supporters ready for month-long blitz,” Daily Herald, 1/6/08).  It’s worth noting that Kirk Dillard voted for that increase in the Senate, one of only three Republicans to do so.  I voted against it.

“Jim Ryan also called for billions of dollars in income tax increases as he sat on the board of a leftwing think tank, with the SEIU union and other liberal groups.  Jim’s $800,000 relationship with Stu Levine hardly speaks of real change.  And his mishandling of the Nicarico case, in addition to being an enormous tragedy, cost Bob Schillerstrom’s County millions of dollars in legal settlements.

“Bob and Jim are on opposite ends of key issues such as capital punishment, the Second Amendment rights and abortion.  But what matters, apparently, is they are both part of the insider crowd.

“It is doubly ironic that Bob Schillerstrom signed the no-new-tax pledge but is now endorsing one of two candidates who didn’t.  Kirk Dillard – no surprise – is the other one.  Bob and Jim are the ‘taxing tag team,’ and with Kirk Dillard, it makes three.”

“Talk about a Schillerstorm!”

Profile: Illinois State Sen. Bill Brady runs for the GOP nomination for governor

Brady is the only Republican gubernatorial candidate who lives outside Chicagoland

By Ray Long and Michelle Manchir

Tribune reporters

January 18, 2010

RANTOUL– State Sen. Bill Brady sat quietly with his wife and daughter in a pew at St. Malachy Catholic Church this month, listening as the priest talked to parishioners about the long struggles people undergo to “find themselves.”

Brady, a Roman Catholic and Republican who has spent years constructing a record in the General Assembly around his conservative beliefs, now needs people to find him.

“To lead, you have to have values,” Brady said in an interview later that morning as he downed scrambled eggs, toast and decaffeinated coffee at the local Red Wheel Family Restaurant. He made the stop to shake hands with folks from a region of corn and soybean fields dotted with Brady billboards and signs sporting pro-gun slogans along Interstate Highway 57.

The camera-ready Bloomington construction company owner, having finished third in the last GOP primary for governor, is hoping his innumerable visits to churches, rallies and chicken dinners will improve his chances in the Feb. 2 primary against a crowded field of Republicans hoping to take back the governor’s mansion. The party lost it in 2002 after a quarter-century in power.

The pitch for values is an easy one to make in a state stung by the impeachment and indictment of former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Illinois’ culture of what Brady called “insider corruption” is one of two big problems he said he would try to end as governor. The other is the state’s habit of spending beyond its means.

“I don’t know a business that hasn’t had to deconstruct or reconstruct to make ends meet, except the state of Illinois,” Brady said.

As the oldest of three brothers in a family real estate, development and construction business, Brady, 48, has had to cut his own workers and saw the number of homes he built plummet amid the slumping economy. In the legislature, he has become a reliable vote opposing taxes and supporting business propositions.

“It’s what I know,” he said.

At the Red Wheel, the breakfast crowd saw Brady as the only GOP candidate for governor living outside of the greater Chicago area.

“I’m tired of city politics,” said Randy Alesia, 40, a Chicago native who works at a car dealership in Urbana. “A Chicago candidate will kind of worry about their own little areas and forget us downstate.”

Despite Mayor Richard Daley’s call for tougher gun laws, Brady would not help City Hall’s effort to ban assault weapons, and he would fight to let Illinoisans carry concealed weapons. A hunter himself, Brady has never bagged a deer but once had a buck mounted when his wife hit it with the car.

Brady, who used to play poker with President Barack Obama when they both served in the Illinois Senate, opposes proposals for a land-based casino in Chicago and would try to stop video poker from expanding beyond existing machines in January 2011 if he becomes governor.

He takes conservative stances on social issues.

Brady is not for abortions in cases of rape and incest nor when just the health of the mother is at risk. The only time he said an abortion should be permitted is if the mother’s life is at stake.

He opposes gay marriage and civil unions. He voted against the state law passed in 2005 that banned discrimination against gays and lesbians in matters of housing and employment.

On education, he supports allowing local school boards to teach creationism. Brady wants to eliminate the quasi-independent State Board of Education or, avoiding a constitutional fight, limit it to an advisory role in favor of a down-sized agency answering to the governor.

Brady supports tougher contribution limits than the campaign reforms Democrats pushed into law. And he backs limits on the number of terms for statewide officials as well as House and Senate lawmakers. He backs reducing the size of the House and Senate by a total of 13 lawmakers and reinstating the cumulative voting system that ensured at least one Democrat and Republican per legislative district.

Brady won’t release his income tax returns or reveal his net worth. State economic interest statements outline holdings that include property management, an Amish furniture store, a Days Inn in Danville and an interest in the Bloomington indoor football team. Florida records showed he owns a Fort Lauderdale condominium that he said he bought in recent years for $380,000.

Brady thinks his business acumen would help close the state’s vast budget gap.

To bolster the economy, he would eliminate the sales tax on gas, the state estate tax and multiple taxes and fees imposed by Blagojevich. But he estimates savings of $7 billion a year largely through privatizing Medicaid and making across-the-board spending cuts, a difficult mission if Democrats keep control of the legislature.

“Spending’s spending,” Brady said. “When you look at your spending at your house or I look at my spending in my business, there are no sacred cows.”

rlong@tribune.com

xtxmanchir@tribune.com

Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune

Brady calls on Hynes to Back Reclassification Legislation

State Senator Bill Brady, (R) 44th District and Republican Candidate for Governor, is calling on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Hynes to support legislation he introduced last week that would require a three-member Prisoner Review Board to oversee the dangerous practice of reclassifying higher level inmates to lower level facilities.

Senator Brady made public last week, a program in which Governor Quinn and the Director of Corrections are sending maximum security prisoners to medium security prisons, while medium security prisoners are being sent to minimum security prisons.

“Governor Quinn obviously allowed for the early release of 2,700 prisoners, because he was freeing up bed space at lower level facilities to accommodate the compression of upper level inmates who were being reclassified,” said Brady.  “The Governor was clearly trying to hide the overcrowding issue in Illinois, and pave the way for the sale of the Thomson Correctional Facility as a state prison.  He needs to answer for that.”

Senator Brady asked Governor Quinn to suspend the practice of reclassifying inmates until the state legislature could further review it’s impact on public safety.  Governor Quinn responded to Senator Brady through the media, calling his remarks “inaccurate and without merit”.  A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections told reporters, “no such classification is underway other than routine classification of inmates.”

“The Governor, in his own television commercial, says he supports moving non-violent offenders to halfway houses to make room in our prisons for violent offenders,” said Brady.  “If that’s not reclassification, then the Governor needs to explain what is.”

Senator Brady is also demanding Governor Quinn explain an undocumented visit by federal authorities to the Thomson Correctional Facility on September 21st of last year.

“Federal authorities were let into Thomson without having to show identification so that the tour could reman off the books,” said Brady of Bloomington.  “They were here to look at the prison as a possible replacement for Guantanamo Bay, and that‘s when the dangerous early release and reclassification of prisoners began.  The timing is no coincidence.”  

Brady Calls on Dillard to Stop the Double Talk?

Senator Bill Brady, Republican Candidate for Governor, held a news conference in Chicago today about questionable, Roland Burris-style campaign tactics in the Republican race for Governor.

Senator Brady highlighted last-minute competing campaign contributions/endorsements given to his opponent Kirk Dillard as an example.  Senator Dillard received a $250,000 loan from controversial conservative activist Jack Roeser, a $134,000 loan from businessman and former gubernatorial candidate Ron Gidwitz, who also fronted Dillard $131,000 in cash and a paid mailing, and he received the backing of the Illinois Education Association, which is known to come with sizable financial support.  Senator Dillard also received a $250,000 loan from the board member of an insurance brokerage firm.

“Kirk Dillard is on the hook for more than $600,000 to people who expect him to pay it back.  That should be a huge red flag to voters,” said Brady.  “A loan from a non-family member is the worst kind of campaign contribution there is.  You have to wonder what these people are expecting in return.”

Jack Roeser and the IEA are at two completely opposite sides of the political spectrum, with opposing views on teacher pensions.  Roeser, who believes the teachers union-backed pensions as a waste of state cash, says Dillard promised him he’d fight for pension reform and stand up to the unions.  In a questionnaire to the IEA, Dillard said he supports a two-tiered pension system.

“It wouldn’t be the first time we got double talk from Kirk Dillard,” says Brady.  “The very fact that he accepted support from Roeser and the IEA shows Dillard likes to play both sides of the fence.  He will say whatever he needs to at the time to benefit himself politically.”

Senator Brady pointed to two examples; Dillard’s televised support of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, and when he caved to labor unions and business groups by voting to legalize video poker machines, because he said he “had a gun to his head”.

“Kirk Dillard needs to realize, you can’t have it both ways,” said Brady of Bloomington.  “Senator Dillard clearly took these large sums of money at the last-minute so he wouldn’t have to justify the contributions.  It’s the Chicago insider way.  It’s reminiscent of Roland Burris taking a record $800,000 loan from one guy at the last minute in his 2002 bid for governor, in an attempt to buy the election.”

It’s tactics like these that Senator Brady says has tainted Illinois’ integrity and image, both locally and nationally.  On the Senate floor yesterday, John McCain attributed Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown’s success in winning the senate seat with the public’s disgust in Obamacare, and what Senator McCain called, “the sleazy sausage-making Chicago-style making of legislation”.

“Illinois needs a clean break from the Chicago-style politics and politicians of the past,” says Brady.  “As the only downstate candidate in this race without ties to the Chicago insiders, I am that candidate.”

Brady Releases Dillard Double Talk Score Card

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – On the anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration, governor candidate Bill Brady today called on opponent Kirk Dillard to finally say what he really thinks of the president and to address a report that he had once considered formally endorsing him against the Republican nominee.

Brady released a “Double Dillard Scorecard” highlighting Dillard’s conflicting positions on Obama.

“First he calls Obama a socialist, then he films an ad for him and apparently considers endorsing him against his own party nominee, then he says he worked against him all along,’” Brady said. “It’s the Triple Lindy of flip flopping, but this fits the ‘Dillard Doubletalk’ pattern on issue after issue.”

Dillard sat down for a television commercial for Obama in 2007, seen now on YouTube.  In the commercial, widely aired throughout the nation during Obama’s primary run, Dillard praised his bipartisanship and  stated, “Republican legislators respected Senator Obama. His negotiation skills and ability to understand both sides would serve the country very well.”

“Kirk Dillard should also answer if he still believes today that President Obama has shown an ‘ability to understand both sides,’” Brady said.  “If he still thinks the president’s skills ‘serve the country well,’ maybe Kirk Dillard can ask him to return the favor and have him film a commercial for his own campaign.”

In addition to filming the commercial, Dillard participated on a conference call with Democratic county chairmen in Iowa.  According to the Iowa Independent (6/27/07), Dillard told the group that while he currently supported John McCain to be the Republican nominee, when the primaries were over, he would “once again look for a candidate, and Obama has many of the characteristics he will look for when making that decision.”

“I will work with anyone, Democrat or Republican, when we are pursuing what’s best for the people,” Brady said.  “But voters in this primary should get a straight answer before they vote: Why did Kirk Dillard not only film a commercial for Barack Obama, and was he getting ready to endorse him against the Republican?” ###

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Double Dillard Score Card
Dillard/Obama: Ultimate Frenemies?

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For Obama…

2007-2009
Films national commercial, saying, “Senator Obama worked on some of the deepest issues we had, and he was successful in a bipartisan way …. Republican legislators respected Senator Obama. His negotiation skills and ability to understand both sides would serve the country very well.”

“When the primaries are over, Dillard will once again look for a candidate, and Obama has many of the characteristics he will look for when making that decision.”  Iowa Independent, 6/07

Makes “stream of laudatory remarks” about Obama in the media and on conference call.  He was also “dragging his feet” on a request by fellow Republicans that he formally ask the Obama campaign to remove the ad from the air.  Politico, 7/08

“I always knew Sen. Obama from the first time I met him was special.”  (Dillard was one of the only Republicans to formally attend Obama’s inauguration.) Daily Herald, 1/09; Post-Dispatch 1/09

Against Obama…

2004
Obama is essentially a 1960s liberal who borders on socialism when it comes to health care and issues like that. Public Affairs, 8/04

2009
“I disagree with Barack Obama on about 95 percent of what he stands for or is. One of the reasons I’m here tonight is I don’t like those socialistic policies, and I warned people back then that he was a socialist and took him on.”  Homer Glen Tea Party Rally, 11/09

[The Obama ad] “is about five seconds long and it is about ethics.” Homer Glen Tea Party Rally, 11/09. (Dillard actually fills more than half of the 30-second ad, praising Obama’s general skills, and the topics include welfare reform, health care, taxes.)

Brady Receives Endorsements of Cong. Johnson and Cong. Manzullo

Senator Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, today received the endorsements of U.S. Rep. Timothy V. Johnson and U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo.

 Rep Johnson said, “I respect Bill’s intelligence, his devotion to public service and his integrity. His years in state government have given him an understanding of the grave problems facing all of Illinois and I know he has the character and fortitude to forge real, sustainable answers to our fiscal crisis.

 ”We don’t need more government. We don’t need more of the same. We need Bill Brady, the only person with the ideas and insight and honesty to return respectability to Illinois.”  

 Rep. Manzullo said Brady “has a real heart for the people of Illinois and a deep understanding of these troubling economic times.  I have no doubt that Senator Brady is the best choice for our state to grow the state’s economy, bring new opportunity to Illinoisans and restore our state’s integrity.”

 ”As a fellow downstater, Senator Brady will bring a new balance to Springfield.  As a businessman, he understands the detrimental effects that high taxes and over-regulation can have on job creation by the private sector.  He will bring a needed business perspective to the challenges that our state government faces.”

 Brady said he was proud to receive the endorsements of the two members of Congress.

 ”I am honored to have the endorsements of these two highly regarded and hard-working Downstate representatives,” Brady said.  “As Governor, I look forward to working with Tim, Don and other members of Congress to create opportunity for Illinoisans and Illinois businesses.”

 Among other endorsements received by Brady are the Champaign News-Gazette, 15 Republican state legislators, the Illinois Citizens for Life PAC, and the Illinois Federation for Right to Life PAC.

Sen. Brady Calls on Quinn to Lift Gag Order on Corrections Workers?

“Governor Quinn’s policies and practices at the state prisons are creating a potential public safety crisis,” said Brady.  “It’s tragic that, at a time when jobs, taxes, and our state economy are the greatest pressing need for our people and businesses, we should be distracted by a manufactured public safety crisis created and concealed by the Governor.”

Last week, Senator Brady revealed Governor Quinn is allowing the Department of Corrections to reclassify higher level inmates to lower level facilities — meaning maximum security prisoners are being sent to medium security prisons, while medium security prisoners are being sent to minimum security prisons.  In response, Senator Brady introduced legislation that would require a three-member panel to oversee the reclassification of prisoners, and asked Governor Quinn to suspend the practice until it could be further reviewed.

Governor Quinn responded to Senator Brady through the media, calling his remarks “inaccurate and without merit”.  A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections told reporters, “no such classification is underway other than routine classification of inmates.”

“If I am wrong, then why do his own campaign ads say I am right?” said Brady.  “The Governor, in his own television commercial, says he supports moving non-violent offenders to halfway houses to make room in our prisons for violent offenders.  If that’s not reclassification, then I don’t know what is.”

Also last week, the Director of Corrections Mike Randle, issued a memo to state prison workers warning them if they talked to the media they could be fired.  The memo was released one day after Senator Brady brought the dangerous practice of reclassifying of prisoners to light.

“Obviously I hit a nerve with the Governor and Director of Corrections, but trying to silence state prison workers for being concerned for their safety is just wrong.” said Brady.  “It’s also hypocritical of the Governor who once fought to give concerned state workers a voice when they witnessed wrongdoing in their department four years ago.”

In 2006 when he was lieutenant governor, Quinn was highly critical of the Illinois State Police Director for trying to keep his employees from talking to the media about alleged misconduct in their department.  In a memo to the director, Quinn wrote;  “State government should do everything possible to protect those with the fortitude to speak out about wrongdoing,”

“I am disappointed in the Governor for going back on his word.  What is happing in our state prisons is a threat to public safety and a danger to our front-line correctional workers,” said Brady of Bloomington.  “If the Governor is going to put a gag order on our concerned correctional workers, then he needs to be the one to come forward and tell us the truth about these dangerous practices in our prison system.  The bottom line is, the public deserves to know.”

Senator Brady is a member of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) which, despite his attempts to stop it, voted two weeks ago to authorize the sale of the Thomson Correctional Facility to the federal government.  Senator Brady argued Governor Quinn’s early release of prisoners clearly shows overcrowding is an issue in Illinois, and as a result, Thomson was needed as a state facility.

“Governor Quinn was obviously freeing up bed space at lower level facilities to accommodate the compression of upper level inmates who were being reclassified as a ruse to hide the overcrowding problem and advance the sale of Thomson,” said Brady.  Frankly, I am surprised that I am the only Republican that seems to care more about this important public safety issue than the primary campaign.  Every Illinoisan should be concerned about what’s going on in the Department of Corrections and the effect those decisions are having on crime in our communities.”

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Brady will Promote and Protect Illinois Agriculture

 Senator Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, said today he will promote Illinois agriculture as the state’s next Governor and work to ease state policies and regulations that put Illinois farmers and agri-businesses at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring states.

 ”Agriculture is the largest industry in Illinois, accounting for about 25 percent of the state’s economic activity,” Brady said.  “My administration will make sure that Illinois agriculture does not lose any more ground to other farm states.  I want to see the anti-agricultural and anti-business policies of the Democrat administrations in Springfield turned around so that Illinois agriculture grows and thrives along with our rural communities.”

 The only Downstate candidate for Governor, Brady unveiled his agricultural policy during a visit to Progressive Farm Products Inc. in Hudson.

 Brady said he supports:

 *  Eliminating the state estate tax penalty that puts family farms at risk and eliminating the state sales tax on gasoline that unnecessarily costs Illinois families and businesses.

 *  Reducing bureaucratic regulations, red tape and inefficiency that delay investments in agricultural-related business start-ups, such as ethanol plants.  He said approval of necessary state permits has taken more than a year in instances, where the permitting process in other states is accomplished in 150 days or less.

 *  Rebuilding a professional Illinois Department of Agriculture, including prioritizing and restoring program funding, which has been cut by as much as 70 percent.

 *  Reducing anti-business taxes and fees to encourage greater business investment in Illinois and create new private sector jobs.

 ”Unlike other companies, farmers cannot move their farms across the border to Indiana or Iowa to survive,” said Brady.  “They are faced with either suffering the high costs of living and doing business in Illinois or selling their farms.”

 ”I will work with the agriculture community to promote Illinois agriculture and Illinois-made agricultural products, whether it is large farm equipment or home-grown honey,” he said.  “We have a rich agricultural heritage and the potential for an even richer agricultural future.”

 Brady, of Bloomington, is the only candidate for Governor with both legislative and business experience.

 He was joined at the announcement today by members of Farmers for Brady. 

 Former Congressman Tom Ewing of Pontiac is the honorary chairman of the advisory board.  Chairmen are William J. Graff, a farmer from Logan County and former state executive director of the Illinois Farm Service Agency USDA, and George W. Obernagel III, a partner in a multi-state family farm operation from Monroe County and a retired executive and farm manager with banks in Belleville.

Brady Endorsed by Champaign News-Gazette

“Best Candidate to Represent Republicans in the Fall”

 

 Senator Bill Brady, Republican candidate for Governor, was endorsed today by the Champaign News-Gazette which said Brady is an experienced “traditional conservative” who is best able to bring a statewide balance and perspective to Illinois government.

 ”Voters need to restore a balance to the state’s political calculus if any area other than Cook County is to have a seat at the table. Brady’s opponents are from the Chicago and suburban areas and are, therefore, less inclined to understand geographical issues as clearly as Brady,” the News-Gazette said.

Noting that Brady is the only Downstater in the gubernatorial field, the Champaign newspaper said, “That is not the only reason to support Brady, but it is one of many good ones.”

“A veteran legislator, Brady is a common-sense politician who represents his party’s ideals of lower taxes and spending, less government and laissez-faire economics. He is not a George Ryan-style deal-maker,” the News-Gazette said.

“Brady also shines in the policy area, noting that Illinois’ sick economic status will never be cured until the state is a good place for new businesses, creating jobs that offer people a good living and producing the increased tax revenue that government needs to operate.”

 ”A traditional conservative, Brady wants to clear the road of impediments to economic development. In that sense, Brady is not alone among his competitors in the race. But in our view, he is the best candidate to represent the Republicans in the fall.”

 Brady, of Bloomington, said he was pleased to have the newspaper’s endorsement. 

 ”The News-Gazette recognized that my understanding of statewide issues and my conservative and pro-business beliefs are the winning combination for Republicans,” Brady said.  “I am honored to have the News-Gazette endorsement.”

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