Quinn for Illinois

Community Outrage Continues to Build Over Hynes’ Divisive Campaign Ads 

CHICAGO – Responding to increasing community outrage over the Hynes campaign’s divisive television ads, Governor Pat Quinn will speak on Saturday at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Saturday Forum, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. They will be joined by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who has endorsed Governor Quinn in the Feb. 2 Democratic primary election.

The latest ad by the Hynes campaign, which misappropriates decades-old footage of the late Mayor Harold Washington, has ignited an emotional response from the African-American community and progressives throughout Illinois.

On Friday, four U.S. Representatives with strong ties to Mayor Washington joined former Washington advisor Jacky Grimshaw at a news conference to denounce the Hynes campaign maneuver and demand an apology from Comptroller Hynes.

“When I saw this ad, I couldn't believe it,” U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis said during the emotional news conference in Chicago. “I listened. I watched it.  I brought my wife into the room, and I said, `Can you believe that Dan Hynes, the Hynes campaign, is using an ad, the spoken words of Harold Washington from more than 20 years ago, to try and convince African-Americans that people who have been with them always, somehow or another, are now against them?  And people who have always been on the other side, somehow or another, are with them?’

“If Harold were here today, I guarantee that, unequivocally and without a doubt, he would be supporting Pat Quinn for Governor, smiling all the way and saying 'This is the guy that we need,'” said Congressman Davis, a close friend of Mayor Washington who served as a Chicago alderman during the Washington administration and provide staunch support for Mayor Washington in the racially divided City Council during those difficult years in Chicago’s history. 

“It's the legacy of Harold Washington that, for the past quarter century, progressives have been building a coalition that transcends racial politics to move Chicago and Illinois forward,” said U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a leading progressive voice in Congress and former Washington campaign volunteer. “These ads are just a cynical attempt to undermine all the progress we have made, for personal political gain.

“It is very disappointing that, instead of focusing on the real issues – jobs, the economy, healthcare -- Dan Hynes is sifting through old video footage looking for clips of leaders who are no longer with us, who aren't here today to express their views,” Congresswoman Schakowsky added. “It is an insult to Harold Washington's memory to use that video clip to support a candidate who's trying to bring back the divisive politics of the past. I think Dan Hynes should take down that ad. We need a leader like Pat Quinn who will reach out across divisions and create solutions.” 

“Dan Hynes is distorting history for his personal political agenda,” said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who served as a close advisor to Mayor Washington and won a seat in the Chicago City Council in 1986 with Mayor Washington’s strong support. “Dan Hynes is attempting to use the memory of a Chicago hero – a Chicago hero that the Hynes family did everything they could to defeat, to demean and to destroy – for pure political agenda and purposes. Dan Hynes should be ashamed of himself. He should apologize today and he should tell the truth.  He should move on to the real issues.”

“That's why I'm proud to support Pat Quinn,” Congressman Gutierrez added. “He believes in bringing people together, not tearing us apart. He believes in moving forward. Pat Quinn believes in making Illinois a better place for everyone, and for fighting for the common good.  And I am proud to fight alongside Pat Quinn.”

Congressman Gutierrez said Mayor Washington’s comments in the Hynes ad reflected the late mayor’s fiery temperament. “I loved Harold, and I supported Harold, but let me be clear -- he got mad at me too. More than once.  And I bet you other people could tell you stories about Harold getting mad at them, too.  You know why?  Because he cared.”

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a longtime friend and supporter of Harold Washington who was elected to the Chicago City Council in 1983 – the year Harold Washington first became Mayor – denounced the Hynes ad as “an act of a desperate man, who is in a desperate situation, and is running a desperate campaign. I might even start calling him `Desperado Dan.‘ 

“Dan Hynes should not only apologize, he should take his ads off of the television,” Congressman Rush said. “Instead of him going to churches in the African-American community over the next two weekends trying to persuade people to vote for him, he should be going to these churches begging forgiveness for his ill-fated attempt to confuse African American voters.

“I want him to know that the same African-Americans who knew that Harold Washington was their man, and who went out marching lock-step to the polls on Election Day to elect Harold Washington, these same folks know that Pat Quinn is their man, and they will march to the polls on Election Day and repudiate these desperate acts of Desperate Dan,” Congressman Rush stated.