* Press release…

Today, the Rauner campaign is launching a new ad featuring Mike Tracy, a dispatcher for the Chicago Police Department. Mike believes that Governor Rauner’s policies will get Illinois back on its feet, and a vote for JB Pritzker is a vote for a blank check to Mike Madigan.

* Spot…

* Transcript…

I’m a dispatcher for Chicago Police. I met Bruce when he became Governor-Elect. His ideas are the right ideas. He wants to help get the state back on its feet. If we go in a different direction than Bruce for four years, you know, the state will be gone. I cannot see Prtizker doing anything that would benefit anybody other than himself and Madigan. A vote for Pritzker is absolutely just basically writing a blank check to Madigan.

* Related press release…

This Thursday, Governor Rauner and JB Pritzker will appear in their first debate of the campaign on NBC 5 Chicago. It’s been clear from day one that Pritzker was Madigan’s handpicked candidate for governor, which explains why Pritzker won’t utter a criticism of the House Speaker.

Madigan has been in power for 47 years while Illinois has suffered through unbalanced budgets, massive tax hikes, and historic corruption.

Yet, JB Pritzker seems to be the only person in Illinois who doesn’t see the problem with Madigan’s fiscal irresponsibility.

But on Thusday, JB Pritzker will stand before voters with an opportunity to show he won’t be a blank check for Madigan. Will he have the courage to do so?

* OK, let’s go back to the governor’s campaign “reset” speech…

The reforms we need aren’t partisan or unreasonable. Our neighboring states have flattened and reduced taxes for their residents. Bluer states than Illinois have put in place the same common sense reforms I’ve proposed: Rhode Island Democrats achieved bipartisan pension reform, Massachusetts Democrats reformed their worker’s compensation and government healthcare systems, California Democrats passed term limits and have tackled gerrymandering.

We’ve proposed these things before, but Speaker Madigan has pulled the rug out from under reform. Even when his fellow Democrats desired the same changes, he has stood in the way.

That totally ignores how Rauner stopped Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno’s attempt at a “grand bargain” on many of those issues. If he had just let her do her job, it would’ve been four against one and they would’ve had a real shot at putting Madigan’s back up against the wall. But, no.

* Rauner himself seemed to admit that to the Tribune editorial board the very next day…

He said, in retrospect, he would have accepted smaller changes in such issues as workers’ compensation, local mandate relief, property tax controls and state pensions. During his first term, Rauner pulled back from Senate Republican-led efforts to fashion a “grand bargain” aimed at trying to resolve differences between the governor’s agenda and the Democratic-led General Assembly because it didn’t go far enough.