Their meeting at Chicago's WTTW-TV wasn't billed as a
traditional debate and it could more accurately be called a brawl.
The personal attacks got even more personal, and the two men
frequently raised their voices to talk over each other.Quinn
repeatedly invoked Hynes' father, retired Chicago politician Tom
Hynes, to criticize his son over a campaign ad and pension reform.
"I think Pat Quinn has become disoriented. He thinks he's running
against my father," said Hynes, Illinois' comptroller. "I know
you've been in politics for 30 years, but my father retired 15 years
ago. Maybe you should too."
Quinn said Hynes, unlike the state's other constitutional
officers, had done nothing but work against him as he tried to pull
Illinois through its financial crisis.
"I'm very disappointed in the nature of the campaign. I think
it's a low-road campaign with a lot of sleazy tactics and I'm very
disappointed in Comptroller Hynes. I thought better of him," Quinn
said.
The campaign has taken on a nastier tone in the days leading up
to the Feb. 2 primary since Hynes aired a campaign ad that featured
video of late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington talking about why he
removed Quinn as the city's revenue director more than 20 years ago.
Hynes maintains the ad is relevant to Quinn's job performance
then and now as governor because the state's problems have gotten
worse since Quinn took over last year when Gov. Rod Blagojevich was
removed from office.
Quinn has said he resigned from the city post in 1987 because
others in the Washington administration had wanted him to take
unethical actions.
The governor has repeatedly chastised Hynes for using the video
of Washington, because Hynes' father left the Democratic Party in a
bid to try to unseat Washington.
"You and your father opposed Harold Washington every step of the
way," Quinn said of the younger Hynes, who was a teenager at the
time.
Dan Hynes said Quinn's campaign has run negative ads too.
"You just don't see me whining about it," Hynes said.
