* Published reports have this ad airing in Springfield and the Quad Cities. It’ll also air elsewhere Downstate, but not in Chicago as of yet. Press release…
Featuring powerful images of real Illinoisans directly affected by his massive and dangerous budget cuts and contract demands, a new TV ad campaign debuting Monday in markets around the state focuses on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s efforts to dismantle the cost-effective and vital child care and home healthcare programs.
Two new 30-second ads began airing Monday on the eve of the June 30th expiration of contracts that represent 57,000 child care and home healthcare workers. Combined with massive budget cuts and poison-pill contract demands, Rauner is threatening mass layoffs and an end to services to tens of thousands of vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities, aging veterans, children and working families.
Said James Muhammad, a vice president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, which represents the workers:
“Bruce Rauner has never personally understood the struggles facing everyday Illinoisans so we hope he takes an opportunity to listen. These TV ads show the heartbreaking consequences of his dangerous cuts and extreme contract demands of the child care and home healthcare workforce that will bring real hurt to our vulnerable neighbors. We hope that Rauner recognizes the broad bipartisan support for child care and home healthcare services in Illinois and changes his dangerous course.”
Both ads feature home healthcare worker Dori Curtis, who notes that, “People live longer if they are allowed to remain in their homes.”
Watch the first ad featuring Betty Wessing, an Illinois senior, here.
Watch the second ad here, which also features Wade Lango and his brother Terry Lango, who worries that Wade will be forced into a nursing home without care.
Facts about the programs and the Rauner cuts can be found at a new website, Dangerouscuts.org .
SEIU’s ads are better than Rauner’s. And, perhaps rthis shows that the Governor and his allies are not the only ones who can marshal the funds for an ad buy.
They also have a legitimacy/integrity that a campaign ads doesn’t; they’re not asking you to vote for Rauner’s opponent. They’re just asking Rauner not to cut them into a nursing home. Just asking him to govern well/make the right decision. Powerful.
- All the answers - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:24 pm:
When Betty Wessing says I just want a little help. Powerful. Everyone has someone who has gone to a nursing home and never come back.
@TribTowerChick - meh, I already told people, picket MJM and Cullerton. Rauner is the hero. #HowsThat #June30 #ThankYouNote
To the Post,
Powerful, makes the plain truth to what governors have known up to now; decisions made have consequences, governors own the consequences. Good. Or bad. They own.
This is more than a PR campaign. It’s about being responsible and advocating for a community. I thought the effort showed genuine care and concern. It would be nice if Rauner showed the same.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
Spots seem well done, those appearing in them deliver the message, although two could be actors. And Norseman, don’t you worry about SEIU not having enough money…they always have more than enough to buy what they need.
My mother receives home health care and lives with me. It makes it possible for her to continue living with me. I don’t want her in a nursing home at 3 or 4 times the cost of sending out an aide to look after her a few hours a day. What will my choices be, Governor Rauner, if you cut those few hours? What will it cost the state of Illinois?
===Anyone else notice the photo of Rauner giving a stiff-arm salute?===
I missed it. Wow. Not a great image.
These Ads are the drum beat.
To - Norseman -’s point, and answered that SEIU will have plenty of dough, my thought is more about the snowball effect this does in bringing that den beat and letting hear Ads, or other moves galvanize the drum beat of the Rauner Cuts.
How long can Rauner deny these out his cuts when thise effected know otherwise?
These are powerful, but they are to sustain the drum beat of those that know, not reinforce a false narrative.
Powerful ads. Heartwrenching. We’re talking real tragedy. These are the tragedies that will happen if those who call the people in the ads “takers” and see them as expendable get their way politically. If government would be shrunk small enough to be drowned in a bathtub, it is the sickest and most vulnerable and their families who need help to care for them who would go down the drain.
- Albany Park Patriot - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 1:16 pm:
A little more authentic than the son of the Motorola general counsel wearing around a Carhartt jacket and dropping his “gs.” But again-these folks did not cause the crisis. Years of inaction by both parties did. It would be a sin to let the most vulnerable suffer while bankers and corporate execs get a free pass.
I’d be more inclined to run these kinds of ads while on offense rather than defense. They are powerful images, and most people know someone dealing with issues like these. We are used to seeing a lot of this now with wounded warriors, disaster relief, missions, etc.
They are indeed visually powerful. It remains to be seen how effective they are.
Grab a bowl of popcorn guy. There will be a steady stream of ad rollouts exposing the the gov for what he is. It will even continue after we have a budget. Then the TRS ads will play highlighting the exhorbanent fees collected by his firm. Then the hearings.
I didn’t think the first ad was particularly strong. Too much focus on class rhetoric (rich getting richer, corporations not paying, etc). Second one focused just on the impact of cuts on the people. Wayy more effective.
Really guy? I don’t recall the ads from TRS… But I live downstate so perhaps I missed them. Your guy is in way over his head. He should’ve stuck to buyin up companies & loadin em up in debt - declarin dividends for himself to get his winins and all - then slink away.
“Since we’re having tough times with funding in Illinois government, we’ve decided to cut back at SEIU to share the memberships’ pain. We’ll proportionately cut dues to match reduced salaries and benefits of members. In fact, we’ll have a “union dues holiday” to help those home health care workers displaced by these cuts. All our management will take 15% salary and benefit reductions, and stop all bonuses and early retirements. We’re all in this together, and sharing the pain and sacrifice is part of our solidarity.”
When that statement is issued, I suggest bringing an umbrella wherever you go. After all, with pigs flying, you never know what will be dropping from the sky…
Rauner has to give a budget with the revenue given to him by Madigan and Cullerton. And they have argued that his budget is still $2 billion out of whack. And, as a State, we are unwilling to raise revenues.
So my question is: if we need to cut $2 billion so Rauner’s budget is balanced, and they don’t want this program to be cut, what do they want to see cut instead so we can have a balanced budget?
Actually Guy, I was predicting something impossible. The Teacher’s Retirement System is never going to fund commercials. Now the NEA might fund a campaign pointing to your guy’s relationship with TRS Board Members. But you have to admit the chicanery that your guy indulged in to get more money from TRS via convicted felon Stuart Levine didn’t get enough air time much less a thorough investigation by the GA or the US Dept of Justice. Your guy is just out of his league and element and you sir are whistling past the graveyard. We’ll just have to see how my predictions perform. Don’t ya think or don’t ya?
**Time for Mr. Balanoff to take over Chicago Federation of Labor he’s a real labor leader not a “plant” elected by weighted votes !!**
These ads aren’t from Balanoff… they’re from SEIU Healthcare.
**Surely there is no bureaucratic fat to be found in such a lean organization.**
There may or may not be an argument that there is “bureaucratic fat” within SEIU. But that is completely irrelevant to the budget crisis at hand. Its a valiant effort though.
- AmericanPie - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:17 pm:
SEIU’s ads are better than Rauner’s. And, perhaps rthis shows that the Governor and his allies are not the only ones who can marshal the funds for an ad buy.
- Honeybear - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:19 pm:
PORT SIDE! FIRE AS YOU BEAR!
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:19 pm:
They are the Rauner Cuts.
Rauner owns the cuts.
It’s only spin to deny that a governor denies his choices.
…
- chi - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:22 pm:
They also have a legitimacy/integrity that a campaign ads doesn’t; they’re not asking you to vote for Rauner’s opponent. They’re just asking Rauner not to cut them into a nursing home. Just asking him to govern well/make the right decision. Powerful.
- All the answers - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:24 pm:
When Betty Wessing says I just want a little help. Powerful. Everyone has someone who has gone to a nursing home and never come back.
- AC - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:29 pm:
Good luck convincing viewers of those ads that the cuts are Madigan’s. Deflection is Rauner’s primary strategy, but it isn’t a very good one.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:31 pm:
@TribTowerChick - meh, I already told people, picket MJM and Cullerton. Rauner is the hero. #HowsThat #June30 #ThankYouNote
To the Post,
Powerful, makes the plain truth to what governors have known up to now; decisions made have consequences, governors own the consequences. Good. Or bad. They own.
- Politix - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:33 pm:
This is more than a PR campaign. It’s about being responsible and advocating for a community. I thought the effort showed genuine care and concern. It would be nice if Rauner showed the same.
- Norseman - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:35 pm:
Good ads, but does SEIU have the cash to maintain the ad campaign until the end of the budget battle? We’ll see.
- Wordslinger - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:35 pm:
Real people spots are very powerful.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:39 pm:
Spots seem well done, those appearing in them deliver the message, although two could be actors. And Norseman, don’t you worry about SEIU not having enough money…they always have more than enough to buy what they need.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:54 pm:
Anyone else notice the photo of Rauner giving a stiff-arm salute?
Oof.
- Aldyth - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 12:58 pm:
My mother receives home health care and lives with me. It makes it possible for her to continue living with me. I don’t want her in a nursing home at 3 or 4 times the cost of sending out an aide to look after her a few hours a day. What will my choices be, Governor Rauner, if you cut those few hours? What will it cost the state of Illinois?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 1:00 pm:
===Anyone else notice the photo of Rauner giving a stiff-arm salute?===
I missed it. Wow. Not a great image.
These Ads are the drum beat.
To - Norseman -’s point, and answered that SEIU will have plenty of dough, my thought is more about the snowball effect this does in bringing that den beat and letting hear Ads, or other moves galvanize the drum beat of the Rauner Cuts.
How long can Rauner deny these out his cuts when thise effected know otherwise?
These are powerful, but they are to sustain the drum beat of those that know, not reinforce a false narrative.
- Grandson of Man - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 1:11 pm:
Powerful ads. Heartwrenching. We’re talking real tragedy. These are the tragedies that will happen if those who call the people in the ads “takers” and see them as expendable get their way politically. If government would be shrunk small enough to be drowned in a bathtub, it is the sickest and most vulnerable and their families who need help to care for them who would go down the drain.
- Albany Park Patriot - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 1:16 pm:
A little more authentic than the son of the Motorola general counsel wearing around a Carhartt jacket and dropping his “gs.” But again-these folks did not cause the crisis. Years of inaction by both parties did. It would be a sin to let the most vulnerable suffer while bankers and corporate execs get a free pass.
- Jorge - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 1:31 pm:
As noted earlier that picture of BVR is just brutal imagery.
- A guy - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 2:14 pm:
I’d be more inclined to run these kinds of ads while on offense rather than defense. They are powerful images, and most people know someone dealing with issues like these. We are used to seeing a lot of this now with wounded warriors, disaster relief, missions, etc.
They are indeed visually powerful. It remains to be seen how effective they are.
- nixit71 - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 2:21 pm:
==but does SEIU have the cash to maintain the ad campaign until the end of the budget battle?==
Their PAC contributed over $750K into Chuy Garcia’s failed campaign alone. Something tells me money won’t be an issue.
- Umm like - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 2:23 pm:
Grab a bowl of popcorn guy. There will be a steady stream of ad rollouts exposing the the gov for what he is. It will even continue after we have a budget. Then the TRS ads will play highlighting the exhorbanent fees collected by his firm. Then the hearings.
- A guy - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 2:26 pm:
Ummm, think we saw that already and he won an election. Are they better reheated?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 2:29 pm:
===Ummm, think we saw that already and he won an election.===
1) tell your guy, - A Guy -, that he won, he can start governing any time.
2) Rauner’s campaign Ads running now, what is there purpose again, I mean, Rauner won and all…
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 2:45 pm:
I didn’t think the first ad was particularly strong. Too much focus on class rhetoric (rich getting richer, corporations not paying, etc). Second one focused just on the impact of cuts on the people. Wayy more effective.
- walker - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 2:57 pm:
SEIU can connect with the public better than AFSCME.
- Business Unfriendly - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 3:03 pm:
SEIU - Wasn’t that the same union prepared to put Blagojevich on their payroll when his house of cards began to fall?
- Umm like - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 3:11 pm:
Really guy? I don’t recall the ads from TRS… But I live downstate so perhaps I missed them. Your guy is in way over his head. He should’ve stuck to buyin up companies & loadin em up in debt - declarin dividends for himself to get his winins and all - then slink away.
- A guy - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 3:28 pm:
Umm, you predicted the past. That’s all.
- Arizona Bob - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 3:43 pm:
I’m waiting for the statement from SEIU:
“Since we’re having tough times with funding in Illinois government, we’ve decided to cut back at SEIU to share the memberships’ pain. We’ll proportionately cut dues to match reduced salaries and benefits of members. In fact, we’ll have a “union dues holiday” to help those home health care workers displaced by these cuts. All our management will take 15% salary and benefit reductions, and stop all bonuses and early retirements. We’re all in this together, and sharing the pain and sacrifice is part of our solidarity.”
When that statement is issued, I suggest bringing an umbrella wherever you go. After all, with pigs flying, you never know what will be dropping from the sky…
- nixit71 - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 4:09 pm:
@AB - To which SEIU are you referring?
The Healthcare branch?
How about the Local 73?
Or is it the Local 1?
Or the IL Council?
Maybe even the National HQ?
Surely there is no bureaucratic fat to be found in such a lean organization.
- RNUG - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 4:50 pm:
Just saw the Betty Wessing ad air during Ellen … so they are doing a decent job of targeting a likely sympathetic audience.
- Modest Proposal - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 5:24 pm:
Rauner has to give a budget with the revenue given to him by Madigan and Cullerton. And they have argued that his budget is still $2 billion out of whack. And, as a State, we are unwilling to raise revenues.
So my question is: if we need to cut $2 billion so Rauner’s budget is balanced, and they don’t want this program to be cut, what do they want to see cut instead so we can have a balanced budget?
- like um... - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 6:10 pm:
Actually Guy, I was predicting something impossible. The Teacher’s Retirement System is never going to fund commercials. Now the NEA might fund a campaign pointing to your guy’s relationship with TRS Board Members. But you have to admit the chicanery that your guy indulged in to get more money from TRS via convicted felon Stuart Levine didn’t get enough air time much less a thorough investigation by the GA or the US Dept of Justice. Your guy is just out of his league and element and you sir are whistling past the graveyard. We’ll just have to see how my predictions perform. Don’t ya think or don’t ya?
- RNUG - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 6:24 pm:
Saw the ‘Wrong Priorities” ad run during the local news between weather and sports. Looks like SEIU gave some thought into placement.
- railrat - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 7:10 pm:
Time for Mr. Balanoff to take over Chicago Federation of Labor he’s a real labor leader not a “plant” elected by weighted votes !!
- AlabamaShake - Monday, Jun 29, 15 @ 10:08 pm:
**Time for Mr. Balanoff to take over Chicago Federation of Labor he’s a real labor leader not a “plant” elected by weighted votes !!**
These ads aren’t from Balanoff… they’re from SEIU Healthcare.
**Surely there is no bureaucratic fat to be found in such a lean organization.**
There may or may not be an argument that there is “bureaucratic fat” within SEIU. But that is completely irrelevant to the budget crisis at hand. Its a valiant effort though.