Richard Irvin’s gubernatorial campaign is using an influx of cash from wealthy businessmen to launch his first television ad buy.

The Irvin campaign wouldn’t release the ad ahead of time, but here’s what we were able to find out:

The ad will focus on crime, the top issue for Republicans in 2022. It’s a spot heavy on “law and order” (not THAT Law & Order) and will highlight Irvin’s support for his local police department. He has claimed he increased the number of officers on the street and increased the police budget, but I’ve had some people close to city government dispute that, so we’ll dig more into that.

You’re also likely to see the Irvin campaign play up his executive experience. They’ll argue two of his opponents are current or former super minority legislators while the other two are business guys who don’t know how government works.

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UPDATE: Here’s the ad:

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Funding the new ad buy is $1.2 million in cash reported late last night from wealthy business types across the state. It’s a bit of a “who’s who” in business circles, including $250,000 donations from Craig Duchossois, James Frank, Mundelein based MacLean-Fogg Group, run by Barry & Duncan MacLean, and $100,000 each from former U.S. Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union Ron Gidwitz and former Chicago Tribune (and Chicago Cubs) owner Sam Zell.

Interestingly, there’s a $250,000 contribution on the list that, frankly, we can’t find anything out about. It’s listed as Braveheart Investments, Inc., with an address in Delaware. Delaware is a typical dumping ground for business registrations, so that’s not surprising, but I did quite a bit of digging last night and there’s almost nothing that exists publicly about the company.

We asked the Irvin campaign Tuesday morning if they can identify a website, office, or owner of Braveheart. We’ll let you know if they respond.

The buy starts Tuesday morning and it includes broadcast all over the state and cable in Chicago, Rockford, and central Illinois.

The ads will only run on FOX News on cable in Chicago, Rockford, Champaign-Decatur-Springfield, and Peoria-Bloomington. The cable buy is about $55,000.

Not all of the broadcast buy is available as I write this early Tuesday morning, but it looks like they’re buying all of the network stations in Chicago for the next week.

• WLS (ABC)- $74,375

• WBBM (CBS)- $69,350 (includes $45,000 for a :30 commercial during AFC Championship game Sunday)

• WMAQ (NBC)- $51,650

• WFLD (FOX)- (not available at writing)

• WGN- $47,100

So, that’s one week of Chicago broadcast for at least $250,000. We don’t have all of the downstate markets available, but they will be less expensive than Chicago.

There will be some chatter as to why this fundraising report doesn’t include anything from billionaire Irvin backer Ken Griffin. Don’t be surprised if all of Griffin’s friends in Republican politics give first to keep the Irvin campaign afloat, keep Griffin’s name out of the headlines, and then dive in a little later with a giant check.

It should also be noted that GOP candidate Jesse Sullivan is also up on cable this week. He’s spending about $90,000 in a two week buy. It’s only on FOX News in Chicago, Champaign-Decatur-Springfield, Rockford, and Peoria-Bloomington.

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UPDATE: Here’s the Sullivan ad:

And a statement from Republican businessman Gary Rabine:

“Pretend Republican candidate for Governor, Richard Irvin, continues the deception today as he rolls out his commercials claiming to be the law-and-order candidate. Let’s do a reality check. Irvin has spent the last twenty years representing criminals and doing his best to keep them out of jail. His clients aren’t just low-level criminals but rather the full range of bad guys from domestic violence offenders to murderers. The crime rates during his tenure as Mayor of Aurora, his support for defunding the police, sanctuary cities and BLM, tells us loud and clear that his approach to law and order is right out of the Kim Foxx - JB Pritzker woke playbook, where victims are an afterthought and justice is only served when the jails are empty.” “But it goes beyond helping criminals beat the rap. Last election, ‘Democrat-running-as-a-Republican-Irvin’ fully supported his criminal defense attorney law partner as she ran against a law-and-order Republican in Kane County. Yes, the guy seeking the nomination for Governor as a Republican fully and actively supported a far-left criminal defense lawyer over a law-and-order Republican. Don’t be fooled by the smoke-screen. Richard Irvin is a left-leaning Democrat and does not support the polices that will end the crime wave in Illinois. We do not need another Democrat as Illinois Governor.”

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Patrick Pfingsten

@pfingsten1

patrick@theillinoize.com