Truth

Statement

U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias sent the following message to supporters across the state following 10 hours of media interviews on Wednesday. As Alexi has mentioned and ABC 7 Chicago highlighted last night, thousands of community banks are struggling and his family's bank is not immune to the challenges of the economic crisis. That's why, unlike Republican Congressman Mark Kirk, he will fight every day to turn Illinois' economy around and put working families - not Wall Street CEOs - first.:

Truth.

Yesterday, I spent the day talking with editorial boards and different media outlets about Broadway Bank, the business founded by my late father thirty-five years ago. The bank, like countless of other small and mid-size businesses across this nation, is struggling in the wake of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Republican Congressman Mark Kirk is attempting to make this community bank's financial troubles an issue in this campaign. I haven't worked at my family's business for over four years and when I left it was profitable and very well-capitalized. I spent over 10 hours talking to the press including a live interview with Carol Marin on Chicago Tonight (watch the video here). I answered their questions, and I will continue being transparent because inaccuracies must be corrected, and because I am proud of my family and my father's bank.

For Mark Kirk, whose ten years in D.C. have allowed him to perfect his Washington games, attacking my family and me is pure politics.

For me -- and for my family -- it's personal.

My father was a first-generation Greek immigrant who came to this country without a penny in his pocket. But despite having nothing, he had the only thing that mattered - a belief in the American dream and a willingness to work hard to achieve it.

So he worked his way up, from selling pickles to buying property to starting a community bank so that others could have a chance at that dream. My father has helped thousands of people start businesses, send their kids to college, build homes, and invest in their neighborhoods.

I grew up in my father's business, from before I could look over the teller's desk. I saw my dad pour his sweat and soul into his daily work, and I saw how his success touched on and improved so many lives. Broadway Bank was his life's work, his legacy, and his dream.

I followed in my father's footsteps after law school and worked at the business he started from scratch. But in 2005, I left to pursue my own dream of a career in public service. At the time I left the bank, Broadway Bank was one of the best-performing banks in Illinois.

But that hasn't stopped Congressman Kirk from launching negative, reckless attacks about Broadway Bank. It hasn't stopped him from ignoring the fact that my family's business, just like so many others, is suffering in a real way because of the reckless Bush policies he supported that got us into this economic mess.

This is why I'm running for the United States Senate. And this is why I need your help today.

Far too often, those purportedly representing us in Washington are completely oblivious to the real-world effect of their policies. To Mark Kirk, the community businesses that are struggling because D.C. dropped the ball are just another political football. To me, and to the small business owners I talk to every day on the trail, it's all too real. This experience makes my fight for a better economy and a way forward that much more personal.

I haven't worked at the bank for years, but I know that Kirk's reckless economic policies that benefit Wall Street fat cats just aren't working for community businesses like Broadway Bank.

And I know that we won't get Washington working for families and small businesses again until we vote insiders like Mark Kirk out of D.C.

I'm not a Washington politician like Mark Kirk who has been at this game for a decade. I come to this race by choice without federal lobbyist or corporate cash in my campaign pockets. Mark Kirk takes millions of contributions from Wall Street, and then votes for corporate bailouts and repeatedly votes to protect outrageous executive bonuses financed by taxpayers. That's what Washington insiders like Mark Kirk do. But despite the fact that our campaign doesn't have the millions that Kirk boasts, we have the only thing that matters - the truth.

That's why we are launching our new website, TruthAboutAlexi.com.

The same right-wing special interests that lied about President Barack Obama in 2008 are now out in full force again in the race for the seat he once held in the Senate. They'll say anything and do anything to protect a politician like Kirk who takes their cash and does their bidding.

But together, we can battle back against the right-wing smears, starting with TruthAboutAlexi.com.

Please visit the site, share it with your family and friends, and help us set the record straight on Broadway Bank and other issues that Mark Kirk is trying to distort for political gain.

Together, we can win this seat for the people of Illinois, turn this economy around, begin to rebuild the American dream and move our country forward.

Sincerely,
Alexi Giannoulias

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