With less than three weeks to go until the Democratic primary, candidates running for governor met for a key debate Thursday night. Mary Ann Ahern reports.
State Sen. Daniel Biss released a new television ad Friday, attempting a quick somersault after a slip from the gubernatorial debate hosted by WBEZ and Politico Illinois on Thursday night.
The ad, titled “Chance,” features Biss and his running mate state Rep. Litesa Wallace talking to voters around the state inside restaurants, at campaign rallies and marching in protests as they ask Illinois voters to give them a shot in the race’s final weeks.
“Most people didn’t give us much of a chance,” Biss says in the 30-second TV spot. “But there’s even less of a chance those billionaires will fix a broken system that benefits them.”
The ad comes less than a day after WBEZ reporter and debate moderator Dave McKinney asked gubernatorial candidates to guess the everyday costs of the average consumer, noting that “this campaign has been framed as a battle for the heart of middle and low-income voters” in Illinois.
Biss, who has referred to himself as the race’s middle-class candidate countless times on the campaign trail, was lambasted across social media after he guessed that a CTA monthly pass would cost $35. According to the CTA’s website, it actually costs $105.
After the debate, Biss’s Twitter account posted a picture of the state senator holding what appears to be a Metra 10-day card, saying: “Always been more of a Metra guy than CTA—but boy did I miss that one!”
"My 10-ride weekly pass costs just under $50 and I just in the moment mixed up a week and a month," he told reporters after the debate.
