Gambino & Stadelman Butt Heads Over Facts in Attack Ad

ROCKFORD - The race for the 34^thdistrict state senate seat is getting pretty heated. The ads have had a negative tinge to them for a while, but now republican Frank Gambino is calling out democrat Steve Stadelman for an advertisement he began running last week. Gambino says his opponent isn't telling the whole truth, but Stadelman says the truth's out there.

The commercial labels Gambino as a "cheater." It starts out by saying, "Frank Gambino says we need businessmen like him in Springfield, but Frank Gambino's company violated minimum wage laws multiple times."

Gambino isn't taking the accusation that he's being called a "cheater" lightly. He says that the issue was handled properly

"We had no fines levied against us, we had no accusations of illegal activity," said Gambino.

"You know we had nothing that suggested that we had done anything in the way of impropriety."

Stadelman says he sees it differently. He says records from the Illinois Department of Labor showed violations of labor law.

"This wasn't a mistake or just happened," said Stadelman.  "One of the employees filed a complaint, which launched an investigation. After the investigation, the Department of Labor found that he owed these two women thousands of dollars in back pay."

Gambino says one of the women listed in the complaint still works for him. Fran Watson answers phones in Gambino's main office in Rockford. She's on paid leave now because she's battling cancer, but came into the office on Monday to talk to reporters about how upset she is over the ad.

"When I first saw it, I knew it was me, I mean I knew I was one of the two women, and I'm like this happened a long time ago and it was taken care of immediately," said Watson. "I didn't even know about it till I got the check."

But regardless of how the situation was resolved, Stadelman says the illegal activity happened and he believes the public should know about it.

"If he wants to run on the basis that people should send him to Springfield because he's a businessman, people need to look at his practices," Stadelman said.

Gambino has requested that Stadelman remove the ad from airwaves and issue an apology. Stadelman says that's not happening and he stands by his words.