State Sen. Bill Brady launches bid for governor

State Sen. Bill Brady on Monday became the first candidate to formally enter the race for Illinois governor, telling audiences during a four-city fly-around that one reason he's running again is to help end corruption.

"Pay-to-play politics can no longer exist in Illinois," the 47-year-old said in Chicago on the first leg of his one-day tour. "It has been a black eye on our state. It has been a black eye on the citizens of this great state and it has to come to a stop."

The Bloomington Republican lost a 2006 bid for the Republican nomination with about 20 percent of the vote, lagging well behind primary winner Judy Baar Topinka and second place finisher, dairy magnate Jim Oberweis.

Brady kicks off his campaign for the 2010 vote in the wake of one Illinois' worst corruption scandals, which culminated in the removal from office in January of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat.

The conservative Republican's prescription for stamping out corruption includes laws offering incentives for those with knowledge of corruption to come forward.

"We need whistle-blower laws that will pay any citizen a bounty to turn someone in to make it worth their while -- so that anybody is afraid to do anything wrong," he said.

Brady also accused the ruling Democrats in Springfield of using Blagojevich as an all-encompassing excuse for the state's problems, which include a yawning deficit that runs into the billions of dollars.

"The Democrats have tried to lay their past sins, as enablers to Gov. Blagojevich, at the feet of Gov. Blagojevich," he said.

Other goals of any Brady administration, he said, would include lowering taxes and shrinking the size of state government.

Speaking to reporters in Chicago, Brady pledged that he would never raise taxes as governor.

"You have my word," he said.

Brady also scheduled stops in Springfield, Marion and Bloomington on Monday.

Other Republicans mulling a run for governor include Doug Whitley, who has taken a leave of absence as president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. And Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn hasn't ruled out running for a full term.