Giannoulias Denounces Karl Rove's Dirty Dollars

Press Release

Illinois State Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias today denounced Karl Rove who will enter Illinois politics next week with an onslaught of negative, false television ads for his friend, Congressman Mark Kirk.

Rove and his political front group American Crossroads - funded by undisclosed contributions from corporate special interests - is planning to stand up for Congressman Mark Kirk and flood the Chicago media market with more than $300,000 in negative, false television ads. The ad it set to begin airing on Tuesday.

Giannoulias, who refuses all corporate PAC and federal lobbyist money, will call on Kirk to denounce Rove's history of lies and disclose where the money came from to produce this misleading ad.

"It's not surprising that Karl Rove - the architect of the Bush-Kirk economic policies that drove our economy to the brink of collapse - isnow bringing his bags of Washington-insider money to bailout Congressman Kirk," Giannoulias said. "Illinois voters are sick of Karl Rove and Mark Kirk politics. Both are funded with millions of corporate special interest money, and both aren't afraid to lie when it suits their political ambitions."

Similar negative attack ads produced by Rove's group and broadcast in other states have been called out as false and denounced by independent fact check groups.

In MISSOURI, Rove's ad attacking Senator Carnahan was pulled by television stations because the FEC launched an investigation of illegal coordination between Rove and the Republican senate candidate.

In CALIFORNIA, Rove's group ran ads accusing Senator Boxer of supporting cuts to Medicare, but the bill they cited did no such thing. "Our advice: Don't let Crossroads GPS steer you down the wrong road." [Factcheck.org, 8/30/10]

In PENNSYLVANIA, ads attacking the Democratic senate nominee were called "not true," "egregious" and "wild exaggerations" by the independent Factcheck.org. [Factcheck.org, 8/30/10]

In NEVADA, Rove's ads against Senator Reid were rated a "D" for accuracy by the Las Vegas Sun and called out for making false claims by the independent Factcheck.org. [Las Vegas Sun, 7/21/10; Factcheck.org, 7/16/10]

In KENTUCKY, the group's ads against the Democratic senate candidate were called "misleading" in their claims about the health care bill. [Factcheck.org, 8/30/10]

In COLORADO, Rove's ads attacking Senator Bennet were panned by local news organizations as being flat out false. [9 News, 9/1/10; 9 News, 8/26/10; 7 News, 8/26/10; CBS 4 Denver, 8/27/10]

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