Gov. Pat Quinn (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
CHICAGO (CBS) – You can add Nevada to the list of states trying to come to steal business from Illinois.
The Nevada Development Authority is airing a TV ad all month trying to coax businesses here to go west. It’s the latest in a list of states actively trying to get businesses to bail out of the Land of Lincoln.
But one group is now coming to Illinois’ defense, CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports.
Gov. Pat Quinn is now getting attacked from both sides of the United States. Officials in Nevada and New Jersey, to name just two states, are making it very clear they want Illinois’ jobs and businesses.
Enter the non-profit arm of For a Better Chicago. Spokesman Jake Braun says his organization is correcting the record by taking out print ads in some New Jersey publications that dispute N.J. Gov. Chris Christie’s claim that the Land of Lincoln and its leader are bad for business.
“To have people from elsewhere come in and try to take our businesses, we thought we had to stand up and say something about,” Braun says.
It’s the latest twist in an increasingly nasty anti-Quinn sounding campaign by Christie. Last week, Christie called Quinn “a disaster” for his economic policies.
But Quinn appears to be taking all of it in stride, saying the state’s business record speaks for itself. A little help, doesn’t hurt.
“I think he’s on the wrong track,” Quinn says of Christie. “We hope businesses anywhere, whether they’re in New Jersey or Wisconsin, think about Illinois.”
Jake Braun describes For a Better Chicago as a non-profit, non-partisan, pro-business public policy group. But it’s associated with the political action committee of the same name, run by Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s 2002 campaign manager.
The organization has been under scrutiny recently for being able to keep its donors and their contributions private.
