Sen. Bill Brady twice compared Republican opponent for governor Bruce Rauner to jailed former Gov. Rod Blagojevich during Tuesday night's GOP candidate forum.
"The more I hear Bruce Rauner speak the more he sounds like Rod Blagojevich," Brady said. "That's the way he came to Springfield."
Rauner had said the Democratic Party and many Republicans had sold out to "special interest groups that make their money from government."
"The reason I'm running is we have a failed culture in Springfield," Rauner said, "and it's bipartisan failure."
When asked by NBC 5 Political Editor Carol Marin whether he'd sold out, Brady made the Blagojevich comparison and said, "You've got to bring people together, but you have to be decisive, you can't be divisive."
Later in the forum, Brady brought up Rauner's reported ties to Blago-linked Stuart Levine.
"He's tied to more felons who are in jail than I think Rod Blagojevich," Brady said.
Rauner has denied those ties and denied them again Tuesday. "I'm being attacked relentlessly because we're winning," he said. "We have a message that we're going to shake up Springfield."
Watch more clips from the forum here.
