Mayor's radio ads urge voters to back referendums Tuesday
Mayor Daley has purchased $80,000 in radio time over the next six days to urge Chicago voters -- with the help of his running mate, state Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago), -- to support advisory referendums on Tuesday's ballot.
One referendum asks voters to declare their support for a ban on assault weapons. The other asks whether they favor raising the state minimum wage from $6.50 an hour to $7.50.
Del Valle, the mayor's newly appointed city clerk, has recorded commercials that will air on Hispanic radio stations. Daley will be featured on all other stations.
"These are issues that both the mayor and the senator are very passionate about," said the mayor's campaign manager, Terry Peterson.
In the spot, Daley urges voters to "go to the bottom of the ballot to vote on these critical issues. Together, we can help make our neighborhoods safer and our families more secure."
Peterson is also lining up Democratic ward bosses and community and religious leaders to circulate the mayor's nominating petitions now that the city hiring scandal has put renegade groups outside the party structure out of business or diminished their membership. And Daley is planning to hold his first campaign fund-raiser in four years on Nov. 8 at Manny's Deli, 1141 S. Jefferson.
"He has not said to me he's [definitely] going to run. What he's said is, 'If I make the decision to run, make sure all of the pieces are in place to do that,' " Peterson said.