You may not have realized, but Labor Day, was supposed to be a big kickoff of the fall campaign season. Here's IPR's Amanda Vinicky with an update.
The seemingly incessant campaign ads, which -- no joke, Gov. Pat Quinn began airing against his opponent the very night Bruce Rauner clinched the Republican nomination in March, have disguised a traditional highlight on the countdown to November's election.
But if you think you were seeing a lot of commercials now, just wait. The campaigns are ramping up fundraising, and look for them to turn right around and spend it, in attempts to set themselves apart.
Quinn, for example, is in the midst of the so-called "minimum wage challenge," which he began on Sunday. He says he'll live for a week on $79 ... not counting taxes, housing and transportation costs. The governor is an advocate of raising Illinois' minimum wage to $10 an hour, and chastises Rauner every chance he can for saying that Illinois should lower it.
Rauner has since said he would favor a minimum wage hike if it's coupled with policy changes, like an overhaul of Illinois' workers' compensation system.
Rauner, for his part, just finished up a traversing downstate Illinois as part of his "Shakeup Springfield" tour.
