O'Brien first Cook president candidate with TV ad

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien fired the first TV salvo in the campaign for president of the Cook County Board Monday.

O'Brien unveiled a TV ad he said will run in an "extensive" media buy on local broadcast and cable TV channels over the last month of the campaign before the Democratic Primary on Feb. 2.

O'Brien, who has been trailing in polls, called it a "positive" message, as it begins touting his record as head of the MWRD. "We're running strictly a positive campaign here," he said.

Yet, the ad also offered implicit criticism of incumbent President Todd Stroger, with O'Brien saying that he hires employees based on "what they know and not who they know" and finishing with O'Brien righting a crooked Cook County sign.

"I will repeal the whole sales-tax increase," O'Brien says in the ad, "and end the embarrassment. Enough is enough."

O'Brien connects his MWRD experience with implied criticism of Stroger by concluding, "I've spent my life cleaning up messes. It's time we straighten up Cook County."

O'Brien did not say how much was being spent on the ad campaign, produced by Chicago's Adelstein/Liston agency, but allowed, "It's important, in that there's a large percentage of undecided voters out there."

Fellow Democratic rivals Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle and Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Dorothy Brown have said they plan to buy time for TV ads, but haven't launched their TV campaigns yet. Stroger's campaign isn't commenting on others' advertising plans or its own.

O'Brien has scheduled a series of meetings with suburban mayors and village presidents and will meet Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan and Lincolnwood Mayor Gerald Tuerry this morning at Myron & Phil's, a restaurant in Lincolnwood.