CHICAGO (WLS) -- Former president Bill Clinton campaigned in Chicago for Illinois governor Pat Quinn on Tuesday, while Republican challenger Bruce Rauner visited the Quad Cities and Peoria looking for votes.
Former president Bill Clinton joined Gov. Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin touring the Wheatland Tube Company, a southwest side factory with 250 employees.
The governor's campaign used the site to demonstrate its support for good-paying middle class jobs.
"It works better when we share prosperity," said President Clinton. "When we all go forward together."
Wheatland's parent steel company employs over 600 area workers. Its owners say due to an improving economy, it needs to hire more.
"We're hiring," says Barry Zuckelman, CEO of Wheatland Steel. "We're excited and business is good."
During last night's ABC 7 debate, Republican Bruce Rauner blamed Gov. Quinn for what he called the state's loss of manufacturing jobs.
"Jobs are leaving," Rauner said, "companies are leaving, families are leaving."
But Quinn heralded new Labor Department statistics he says show Illinois leading the Midwest in job creation.
"Unemployment is down, way down," Quinn said. "That's the way it should be in Illinois."
Rauner campaigned in the Quad Cities and downstate Peoria Tuesday, repeating his call for a state income tax rollback and restructuring of other taxes.
"To grow we need to reduce the income taxes," Rauner said. "We need to freeze property taxes and we need to broaden the base for other taxes so that we're more competitive."
Back in Chicago, former president Clinton described Rauner's plan as more "trickle down" economics of the past.
"You should vote for your children, your grandchildren, the future and for the idea of shared prosperity," Clinton said.