Biss releases first TV ads in gubernatorial race

Samantha Handler, Assistant City Editor

State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) launched his gubernatorial campaign’s first television advertisements this week after raising roughly $1 million in the fourth quarter, according to a campaign news release.

The campaign featured two ads — “Personal” and “Homework” — which introduce Biss to voters as “the only candidate Illinoisans can trust to fix our broken system,” according to the release. One shows Biss getting his children ready for school, and the other shows him helping one of his children with a homework assignment.

“As the only candidate for governor with kids in public schools, I’m also the only one who will make billionaires pay their fair share in taxes to fully fund them,” Biss says in “Homework.”

The ads come shortly after fellow Democratic candidate J.B. Pritzker (Law ’93) released an attack ad — the latest in a lengthy list of television ads produced by the self-funding billionaire — on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, blaming him for the deaths of 13 people at a veterans’ home. Rauner responded by releasing an ad accusing Pritzker of petitioning for a job with disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In “Personal,” Biss says if more politicians had children in public schools or struggled to balance their budgets, then Illinois would work for the middle class. He added that he is running for governor to fight for fair taxes and affordable healthcare, and fix the “broken system.”

After raising $1 million in the last quarter of 2017, the campaign entered 2018 with $3.1 million on hand. According to the release, donations came from over 2,500 individual donors and 78 percent were under $100. Ninety-six percent of the donations came from within Illinois.

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