{"id":543758,"date":"2010-04-26T13:28:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T17:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef013480279392970c"},"modified":"2010-04-26T16:46:49","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T20:46:49","slug":"giannoulias-ad-turns-bank-failure-into-kirk-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/543758","title":{"rendered":"Giannoulias ad turns bank failure into Kirk attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update by John Chase at 3:47 p.m., Giannoulias to go to Obama event; <\/strong>originally posted by John Chase<\/em> at 12:25 p.m.<\/p>\n

Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias today starts his first TV commercial of the general election campaign, turning the bad news of his family bank’s failure into an attack on Republican opponent Mark Kirk.<\/p>\n

The commercial, which aides say will air across Illinois, comes just three days after federal banking regulators seized control of Broadway Bank.
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<\/br>In the ad, black and white photos of Broadway Bank and Giannoulias\u2019 father are shown as the 34-year-old Democratic state treasurer says Broadway helped \u201cthousands of people achieve the American dream.\u201d
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<\/br>Arguing that the bank was another example of a \u201cfamily business\u201d that has gone under with the recession, Giannoulias then slams Kirk, a North Shore congressman, for voting for policies backed by President George Bush that \u201cgot us into this mess.\u201d
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<\/br>Unlike other major political obstacles, the Broadway Bank seizure had been known for weeks, giving the Giannoulias camp plenty of time to put together a counter strategy.
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In addition to the commercial, Giannoulias was seeking to change the subject by conducting a campaign swing today near Carbondale and Champaign where he was scheduled to discuss mine safety and education. And on Wednesday he’s scheduled to attend a rally in Chicago to lend his support for President Obama’s Wall Street reform legislation.<\/p>\n

Giannoulias also plans to appear that same day with Obama, whom he considers a political mentor, in Quincy as part of the president’s Midwest tour to promote jobs. Giannoulias earlier said he didn’t plan to attend the president’s event, to which other statewide officials have also been invited. The White House has not embraced the Giannoulias candidacy, a potential problem for Democrats trying to keep a Senate seat that Obama once held.<\/p>\n

Broadway Bank went under after numerous problems, most notably suffering major losses on scores of commercial real estate loans. Federal regulators earlier this year cited the bank for unsound banking practices. Now run by Giannoulias\u2019 brothers after their father died, Broadway Bank was unable to meet last week’s deadline to raise $85 million.
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<\/br>Running for treasurer in 2006, Giannoulias used his bank experience as a major qualification for the job. After graduating from law school, he worked at Broadway from 2002 to 2006, serving as a senior loan officer from 2004 until he left.
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<\/br>Four years ago, the bank was doing well financially. But in recent years it has become a political problem for the candidate as critics have questioned Giannoulias\u2019 role in the bank\u2019s failures and what role he played in making specific loans at Broadway, including to a pair of men with criminal records during his time as a senior loan officer.
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<\/br>As part of Friday’s seizure, Broadway Bank was acquired by MB Financial Bank last week. In the hours after the announcement, Giannoulias held a press conference in which he said Broadway\u2019s failures shows he and his family are also victims of the economy, just like many voters. It\u2019s a theme he repeats in the new commercial.
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<\/br>\u201cPeople want someone\u2026who’s been through tough times\u2026someone who’s seen, looked at those problems in the face and continues to move on\u2026and continues to fight and to struggle for people,\u201d he says in the ad.
<\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update by John Chase at 3:47 p.m., Giannoulias to go to Obama event; originally posted by John Chase at 12:25 p.m. Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias today starts his first TV commercial of the general election campaign, turning the bad news of his family bank’s failure into an attack on Republican opponent Mark Kirk. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}