Mayoral Hopeful Wilson To Begin Pouring Money Into TV Commercials
(CBS) -- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel may no longer have television to himself to boost his re-election hopes, CBS 2 has learned.
Challenger Willie Wilson tells Chief Correspondent Jay Levine that he's about to write a seven-figure check to begin running a series of his own TV commercials.
Wilson's initial outlay of $125,000 will be followed by $1 million check next week, for a series of campaign commercials that the former McDonalds restaurant-operator-turned-medical-supplier plans to start airing next week. Wilson shared two of them with CBS 2 on Friday.
Emanuel surfaced on Twitter Friday, campaigning for the first time since going on vacation before Christmas.
The mayor has been running TV spots for weeks, spending at a rate of $500,000 a week to boost his re-election efforts.
"It's always an issue when you run against an incumbent, especially this one, who has an obscene war chest," says Ward 2 Ald. Bob Fioretti, another mayoral candidate.
With just about $100,000 in his campaign account, Fioretti's fundraising is trailing Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia's total of nearly $1 million and Wilson's $1.3 million, if he follows through with those contributions. Still, all three combined don't approach the nearly $10 million the mayor could have by the middle of the month.
While the mayor and Wilson will be on TV, Garcia's videos are so far confined to YouTube.
That leaves Fioretti with a message -- but little money to get it out.
The only evidence of a fifth mayoral contender, perennial candidate William "Dock" Walls, was a filing of a $25,000 loan to his own campaign back in October.
There were six until New Year's Eve, when 20-year police veteran William Collins called it quits.