Gov. Bruce Rauner's campaign pulled the long-running spot from YouTube. | Seth Perlman/AP Photo Missouri sex scandal burns Illinois governor

CHICAGO — The sex scandal that ensnared Missouri GOP Gov. Eric Greitens has created some collateral damage: Bruce Rauner, the Republican governor of neighboring Illinois.

That’s because Greitens, accused of blackmailing a woman with whom he allegedly had an affair, appears prominently in a TV ad Rauner has run almost nonstop in Illinois and St. Louis media markets since last fall.


Rauner’s campaign moved quickly to clean up the mess.

“We’re removing it from all of our digital assets,” Rauner campaign spokesman Will Allison said of the spot. “The ad was taken out of rotation on Tuesday because we knew we were preparing for the [J.B.] Pritzker-[Rod] Blagojevich ad.”

The Rauner campaign also pulled the long-running spot from YouTube.

Greitens was accused on Wednesday of blackmailing a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair after taking a photo of her bound and partially naked.

“You’re never going to mention my name, otherwise this picture will be everywhere,” Greitens allegedly told the woman. On Wednesday, Greitens admitted to having an extramarital affair but denied the blackmail allegations.

Prior to the scandal, the ad was in heavy rotation in Illinois. It was often lauded as unique and catchy for featuring appearances from Greitens, and fellow Republican Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Eric Holcomb of Indiana — the governors of three of Illinois’ neighboring states.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

They “thank” Rauner’s archnemesis, Speaker Mike Madigan, for “blocking Rauner’s reforms,” and thus creating jobs for their own states.

Greitens, a first-term governor often mentioned as a prospect for national office, sarcastically says, “Big fans here in Missouri. Big time. Thank you, Mike.”

Ad spending data shows the ad was the Rauner campaign’s most frequently run ad, with more than 3,100 spots and more than $1.3 million spent on it. In fact, data analytics show since last October, the “Thanks, Mike!” spot was among the top five most-aired political ads in the country. ( Watch the spot ).

Now the Democratic Governors Association is using the Greitens scandal as an opportunity to call on the governor to “renounce Greitens.”

And J.B. Pritzker, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, sought to turn the ad on Rauner by asking in a news release, “Will Bruce Rauner Ask Eric Greitens To Resign?”

Prior to the scandal, Rauner had donated $100,000 to Greitens. They have something else in common: Nick Ayers, now Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, was the chief strategist behind both their campaigns — for Rauner in 2014 and Greitens in 2016.