SPRINGFIELD - Bill Brady doesn't think small.

He planned on running for governor even before his first campaign for the Illinois House. Now that he's finally running, Brady insists he can win the Republican nomination despite trailing badly in both name recognition and money.

And once he's in office, he expects to create 150,000 jobs, engineer a $3 billion turnaround in state finances and overhaul state medical services - all in the first year.

"I see an opportunity," Brady says. "I want to make the most of the opportunity."

Those are big promises for a state senator who is little known outside his Bloomington-area district. He has not made a name for himself with any flashy legislation in Springfield. He's not even a member of the Senate Republican leadership team.

But Brady says he has the right combination of government service and business experience to tackle the state's problems. And the people who know him, even some of his past political opponents, describe a man with the charisma to make things happen.

"When he walks into a room, he clearly has a presence. I think people gravitate to him," said McLean County Recorder Lee Newcom. "He possesses a Reaganesque quality that I have seen in few political figures in Illinois."

U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson defeated Brady in the Republican primary for a congressional seat in 2000, but he was impressed by his opponent and has endorsed him in the governor's race.

"I saw a person who was unwilling to take cheap shots, who was only willing to tell the truth," Johnson said. "I just have one big criticism - he's too good-looking."

Brady, 44, helps run his family business, which has interests in everything from real estate and hotels to arena football and radio stations. He says, and others agree, that the business was struggling when he stepped forward in the 1980s to turn things around.

He was also helping out with some regional and state political campaigns. Eventually, Brady decided to make his own run for office and challenged incumbent Illinois Rep. Gordon Ropp.

Many of Brady's supporters assumed he would lose but leave himself in position to run successfully the next time, Brady said, a scenario that has often been mentioned about the governor's race. But Brady says he always knew he could win - and he did, by eight votes.

"I learned you can win any election if you're willing to knock on enough doors," Brady said.

He served four terms in the Illinois House and is in his second term in the Senate.

Brady calls himself a "mainstream conservative." He says that means he is conservative on social issues but is more concerned about getting things done than fighting ideological battles.

He opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, but Brady said as governor he would "move incrementally" and look for common ground on issues of parental consent and late-term abortion.

Brady opposes gay marriage because it doesn't promote "a procreative society." He also opposes civil unions. "It's marriage in another name," Brady said.

He also disagrees with Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich's efforts to expand government health care for the working poor - not just because he thinks Illinois can't afford it but because it promotes reliance on the government.

"It's a socialistic principle, and I'm a free-market capitalist," Brady said.

But Brady's campaign has not focused on those issues. Instead, he talks mostly about corruption and taxes.

Brady accuses Blagojevich of fostering corruption by taking campaign money from state contractors and by giving his political allies a strong voice in state policy.

He argues the way to clean up government is to remove the incentive for politicians to bend the rules. Brady would limit the size of political donations that politicians can accept. He also would bar officials from awarding no-bid contracts to donors, and contractors from donating to officials.

Like Blagojevich four years ago, he promises not to raise income or sales taxes if he's elected. Brady goes further and promises to roll back the fee increases and minor tax increases that Blagojevich has passed.

Brady says that and other pro-business policies would bring more jobs to Illinois, perhaps 150,000 in the first year. That would be a 2.4 percent increase over current employment levels - compared with the 1.9 percent increase Illinois has seen over the past year, considered a period of strong growth after several lackluster years.

Those new jobs would generate more tax money for the state, he says, replacing the revenue lost by repealing the tax and fee increases.

Couple that with natural revenue growth and the savings he envisions from changes to the state Medicaid system, Brady said, and Illinois would be $3 billion better off than it is today.

But if the jobs didn't materialize or if the Medicaid changes didn't save as much money as hoped or if other revenues dropped, Illinois would face another deficit and Brady would be hampered by his no-tax-increase pledge.

"Is it a gamble? Yes, but it's a calculated gamble," he said.