State health workers preparing ad push to counter Rauner blitz

SHARE State health workers preparing ad push to counter Rauner blitz

SPRINGFIELD — A health care union is launching its own ad push in an attempt to counter Gov. Bruce Rauner’s statewide TV ad launch.

The ad, called “Wrong Priorities,” features first-person testimonials from family of the elderly and disabled, who say their quality of life — and actual lifespan — improves if they’re able to stay at home.

“Governor Rauner’s dangerous budget cuts target Illinois’ most vulnerable,” a narrator says on the ad.

The ad, on social media and online media, is part of a larger paid effort that could include a cable and TV ad buy, according to the union.

The union represents thousands of members, including nurses, LPNs, doctors, lab technicians, nursing home workers and home care workers.

“Bruce Rauner’s slick new ad campaign, bankrolled by his personal wealth and the same billionaires who bought him the governor’s mansion, dishonestly fails to mention that only certain populations — low-income workers, seniors, kids, people with disabilities and aging veterans — are the ones bearing the brunt of his self-proclaimed toughness. Meanwhile, Rauner still refuses to demand big corporations and the super-wealthy pay their fair share,” SEIU Healthcare Illinois Vice President James Muhammad said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Rauner’s Turnaround Illinois independent expenditure committee launched a statewide TV ad campaign that targeted Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Democrats. Rauner has threatened to slash a series of services if Democrats fail to approve portions of his turnaround agenda, including workers’ compensation reform and a property tax freeze.

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”