* Sen. Michael Frerichs has pulled his treasurer campaign announcement video off YouTube and replaced it with a new one.

The embarrassing move had to be made because Frerichs claimed in the original video that he had “led by example” by “ending free lifetime healthcare for legislators.”

Actually, Frerichs voted against that bill.

* Here’s the relevant clip from the original video…

* I asked Sen. Frerichs about his vote yesterday, and he got back to me today saying there’d obviously been a mistake.

He said he supported getting rid of free health insurance for elected officials, but the final bill, he said, “included everyone,” including university employees, so he couldn’t support it.

“My media team and I were talking about various reforms I had supported,” Frerichs said, “I think what happened is we saw the bill and saw the first version, which I had voted for.”

He did vote for the initial version, which was basically just an empty vehicle bill.

“We definitely misspoke, we messed up, we’re moving forward,” Frerichs said.

Oops.

* Making matters far worse, the legislation which Frerichs voted against was co-sponsored by none other than Tom Cross, Frerichs’ likely GOP rival. So, expect a Tom Cross press release in 3… 2… 1…

But, really, the goofiest thing about this mistake is that Frerichs has been running for treasurer for a year now. He’s had all this time to prepare the “perfect” official rollout and he blew it. That’s a seriously amateur mistake for a guy who claims to be running a top-notch campaign. There’s just no excuse for this stuff.

*** UPDATE *** Cross’ tracker was tossed out of Frerichs’ Chicago announcement event yesterday, but not before this video was taken of Frerichs taking credit for eliminating free lifetime health insurance for legislators…

Apparently, Frerichs dropped that particular line when he reached Peoria, which would be after I’d sent him an e-mail asking about the vote.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Not everything else went smoothly for Frerichs on his big day, either. For instance, when asked yesterday about Senate President John Cullerton’s recent comments that Chicago pension reform is the session’s number one priority, Frerichs contradicted himself…

“There are many priorities out there, that is one of his,” Frerichs said.

Is it one of yours?

“In the treasurer’s office? No, the treasurer’s office is not in charge of pension reform. I think the things we need to focus on are making investments in our communities here in Illinois…” […]

Asked about Bruce Rauner’s criticism of Rutherford for not stepping up and taking a more central role in helping solve pension crisis, Frerichs said:

“The treasurer should be offering advice. We’ve seen the state going in the wrong direction”

Um, OK.

* Related…

* Ill. treasurer candidate hits incumbent on travel: Rutherford’s campaign spokesman Brian Sterling dismissed the criticism Wednesday, saying the treasurer is “very careful about mixing state and political business together.”

* Mike Frerichs kicks off Treasurer Campaign in Rock Island

* Candidate for state treasurer promises audit