Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Gov. Quinn Turns His Front Lawn Dandelion 'Issue' Into Positive Campaign Ad

By Mark Konkol | September 3, 2014 5:10am
 A frustrated neighbor outed Gov. Pat Quinn for letting his front lawn run wild with dandelions.
Gov. Quinn's Lawn
View Full Caption

GALEWOOD — In May, a neighborhood tattletale contacted me to rat out Gov. Pat Quinn for neglecting his front lawn until it got choked with footlong dandelions.

After I outed the governor for creating a source of neighborhood aggravation, he quickly had that problem, well, mowed down.

In a twist of irony, Quinn's campaign on Tuesday released a political ad that uses his overgrown front lawn as a metaphor to tell voters he's a guy who knows how to solve problems.

“When I became governor, state government needed to be cut, just like my lawn," Quinn says, going on to list his budget-cutting accomplishments.

 

The campaign ad already has caused quite a stir.

Political pundits, or course, have pointed out the Quinn's front lawn was a debacle of his own making.

And Quinn's Republican challenger, Bruce Rauner, has issued a "fact check" of the governor's cost-cutting claims.

The tit-for-tat over Quinn's lawn didn't start out political, but it has always been controversial.

Even after the governor mowed his lawn this spring, Chicago's pro-dandelion minority defended the yellow flowering yard pests that took over Quinn's yard.

And that left Chicagoans in a quandary that has nothing to do with the November election: To mow or not to mow, that is the question.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: