Illinois Republican Party

Brady kicks off Illinois gubernatorial race
3/9/2010

By Steve Birmingham - St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady said Illinois voters are tired of machine politics as practiced in the northern part of the state and said he will focus on that and jobs creation if elected governor.

The Illinois Board of Elections recently certified Brady as the winner over Kirk Dillard in the Illinois Republican primary.

Brady’s “Thank You Tour,” arrived after making stops in Chicago, Rockford, Moline and Quincy, Illinois, before continuing on to Marion, Champaign and Peoria. He used the stop to thank supporters and rally for his campaign against Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. He said he had two priorities – to build an economic climate that fosters job creation and end political corruption.

Brady was accompanied by his wife Nancy and Lt. Governor Candidate Jason Plummer and said that when got married 27 years ago he and his wife wanted to raise a family and build a business in central Illinois.

“Twenty-seven years ago there were greater opportunities for families in Illinois than there are today,” Brady said. “What this election is all about is what we can do to put the right leadership in place, in every office possible, and to put the right policies in place to make Illinois the state it once was, and can be again.”

“To bring back jobs to Illinois and keep jobs in Illinois you’ve got to cut the cost of doing business and make Illinois a more competitive place to do business,” Brady said.

To do so he would reduce the tax and fee burden, reducing the regulatory environment, reduce the litigious environment and focus on ”rooting out that machine , political culture of corruption that has resonated from the northeast corner of the state throughout the rest of the state,” Brady said.

Brady said the race against Quinn is about “clear differences between what the Chicago machine Democrats have to offer the people of Illinois” and his pledge to “clean out and rid the culture of corruption that has blackened this state over the last several years.”

Brady said the state has a $2.5 billion deficit because “Pat Quinn has proven incapable of managing our state’s fiscal crisis.”

“The Democrats are going to try to distract us, which they typically do,” Brady said. “They’re all about politics but we’re going be about policy. We’re going to be about job policy and ending the culture of corruption.”

Brady said it would take more than just traditional Republican voters to put him in the Governor’s Mansion and said he would reach out to independents.

If elected he would look to reduce state spending by $3.5 billion, and call for across –the-board cuts to reduce deficit spending by 10 percent.

“Every area of state government is going to have to share n the reconstruction of the budget,” Brady said. “I want to prioritize spending from the bottom up.”

He also said he would end the state’s death penalty moratorium and said he didn’t think it was “legal for a governor to step in and place a moratorium indefinitely on the death penalty.”

SOURCE: St Louis Globe-Democrat

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