* Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign posted its new TV ad on YouTube on July 29th. It’s so far received 1,731 views…

* Two days later, on July 31st, Bruce Rauner’s campaign uploaded a paradoy of the Quinn TV ad. Check out the view count…

Neither one of these videos has gone viral, but the Quinn ad is its most-watched YouTube video of the year. Rauner has at least 30 videos which have garnered more views so far.

Rauner is the challenger, and there’s always lots of interest in a challenger, and as we get closer to the election we’ll see Quinn’s viewcounts rise. Four years ago, one of Quinn’s videos got national attention and received over 174,000 views.

But when your TV ad is being out-viewed online by a parody ad, that’s probably not a great sign.

* Meanwhile, the Illinois Federation of Teachers is hoping this video of Rauner saying last year that he may have to shut down government will get hot online…

The Rauner quote…

“I apologize. We may have to go through rough times. We may have to do what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers. Sort of have to do a do-over and shut things down for a little while. That’s what we’re gonna do.”

From the video explanation…

In this clip, Illinois gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner proposes that Illinois fire public employees (apparently without cause) because he felt “things” need to be “shut down for a while” to fix government.

Rauner will probably believe he has ample “cause” if he ever decides to take that step, but I see their point. Full speech is here.

* And the Rauner campaign is trying to put words into Quinn’s mouth with its latest video…

Quinn Disagrees with Tribune, Falsely Claims No Federal Funds Were Used in NRI Governor intentionally misleads public when asked to respond to congressional delegation concerns On Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported for the first time that federal disaster funds were misused in Gov. Pat Quinn’s Neighborhood Recovery Initiative. When confronted with the front page story at a press conference in southern Illinois later that day, Gov. Quinn pretended that no federal funds were ever misued in NRI, despite a front page Tribune story laying out the facts and members of the Illinois congressional delegation calling for an investigation.

Um, not quite. The video…

Quinn’s quote…

“No, I haven’t misused any funds like that. I don’t agree with that at all. You know we take safe-guarding of any of the funds we receive,” he says.

To which the Rauner campaign responds…

Quinn doesn’t agree that federal disaster funds were used in NRI?

A bit of a stretch.

* But while this political video posted by a state legislative candidate has no views as of yet, it does have perhaps the best chance of catching some fire if we give it a little nudge today…

Heh.

Keep it short, keep it simple, add a bit of humor.