Sen. Brady not ‘overly concerned’ about McCann gubernatorial bid

Posted on April 23, 2018
Bill Brady
Illinois Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady is sounding largely dismissive of a former Republican’s bid to challenge Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrat J.B. Pritzker in November. (Photo courtesy Illinois National Guard)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Calling him a flawed candidate, State Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington doubts a third-party candidacy for governor from former Republican Sam McCann ever gets off the ground.

Brady, the Senate Minority Leader, told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, he thinks the state senator’s union support would make him more likely to take votes from Democrat J.B. Pritzker than Gov. Bruce Rauner.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Brady on WJBC.

“You wake up every morning with concerns,” Brady said. “I’m not overly concerned. We’ll see how Sam does, but he was probably going to lose his Republican primary spot.”

McCann barely won his Senate primary two years against a candidate financed by Rauner and had already announced he wouldn’t seek another term.

“No one knows him and he’s a flawed candidate,” Brady declared. “There’s been investigations into his use of public funds for driving and other things, so there’s a lot of things he’s going to have to answer to.

“I really don’t think he gets off the ground.”

McCann said he plans to run with the conservative party. He’ll need to get 25,000 signatures.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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