Brady's TV ads pulled for lack of payment, WGN says
BY DAVE McKINNEY AND ABDON PALLASCH Staff Reporters
WGN-TV says it and other Chicago television stations have stopped running ads for GOP candidate for governor Bill Brady because Brady hasn't paid his bills.
The news comes in a critical time during the campaign as there are just five days before the election.
But Brady dismissed the issue as a "glitch" he expects to be fixed shortly.
"I understand there was a glitch with our media buyer," Brady said Thursday before appearing at a luncheon downtown honoring former Polish President Lech Walesa. "We've paid our media buyer. He's taking care of it. It will be taken care of early this afternoon if it's not already taken care of already."
Asked if having his political ads going dark at such a critical phase of the campaign would help opponent Gov. Quinn, Brady said, "I don't know know why it would."
Brady denied he was having financial problems. As of two days ago the campaign had spent $17 million.
"We've raised a lot of money,'' he said. "We're always raising every day. We have enough money to carry out this campaign."
Brady spokeswoman Patty Schuh said it is not even clear that the stations really have gone dark - although WGN reported earlier Thursday that the ads had been pulled from its airwaves.
Originally, the Brady campaign committed to spending $2.2 million for this ad buy, while the Republican Governors' Association was planning to chip in $1.1 million. However, they agreed to change the split, with the RGA covering $1.8 million of the costs and Brady pitching in $1.5 million. But the total buy is still the same, Schuh said.
Gov. Quinn, meanwhile, did not have an immediate assessment of the glitch's impact on the race but noted one of the pro-Brady ads that apparently was a casualty of the billing mix-up linked Quinn with impeached ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich - a commercial whose substance Quinn described as "patently false.''
"Bill Brady routinely speaks out of both sides of his mouth, saying whatever he can to try to get elected. His campaign ads are no different, and television stations from across the state have pulled down this blatant attempt to manipulate the people of Illinois,'' Quinn spokeswoman Mica Matsoff said in a written statement.
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