It will surprise almost nobody that some erroneous statements have been made during the campaign for mayor of Quincy, not to mention some legitimate differences of opinion between the candidates.
Mayor John Spring, the Democratic incumbent, has a television advertisement that says Quincy’s unemployment rate is the fourth lowest in Illinois.
That’s incorrect. Adams County’s rate was fourth lowest in January, according to the latest figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Quincy’s jobless rate is the 27th-lowest among 100 cities listed by the IDES.
In that same ad is a mention of bringing jobs to town, followed immediately with mention of the hydroelectric plants being sought along the Mississippi.
Of course, those jobs are not yet in place.
Spring said after the close of a Monday mayoral forum that his ad mentions the creation of jobs as an ongoing priority. Thus “bringing jobs” to town is not a past tense event but present and future tense.
Dave Bellis, the Republican challenger, has charged that people should connect the dots between Spring and ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He said after Monday’s forum that Spring and Blagojevich have many of the same contributors.
“You can draw your own conclusions,” he said.
Perhaps since both men are Democrats, they both were favored by Democratic donors?
Bellis also mentioned campaign donations as a possible motive for the repaving of Acadia Way, a street in his neighborhood. Bellis said the street was in good shape and that it was a waste of money to repave it. He said two of Spring’s donors live on the block.
Spring responded that the 5th Ward aldermen, Mike Rein and Jennifer Lepper, would have made Acadia Way a priority that was confirmed by the Engineering Department. Rein and Lepper are Republicans.
The contributors who live in the neighborhood played in Spring’s golf outing, so their names would show up on fundraising reports.
There are plenty of other little verbal bobbles and disagreements in this race, but those are a small sampling.
