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What the media didn’t tell you about last night
Friday, Jan 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller * I know it’s late in the day on Friday, but I was finally able to track down the audio from last night’s post debate press conference. I wasn’t able to attend, so many, many thanks to Tanya Koonce, the WCBU news director, for passing these along. * Sen. Kirk Dillard went after Bruce Rauner hard and the assembled reporters all ignored it when it came time to write their stories. Dillard said that Rauner’s venture capital world was “You do it my way, or we’ll steamroll you.” Dillard then brought up the recent stories about nursing home deaths tied to Rauner’s company. “There is a cost to ‘My way or the highway,’ people have died.” Dillard claimed that “Bruce Rauner is just used to buying things… and he’s not going to be able to buy his 10th mansion in Illinois.” “Read what the judge wrote in the nursing home case, ‘A callous disregard for human life,’” Dillard said. Dillard mentioned the Michigan case, he hammered home the Stu Levine stuff. But almost none of this was covered by the reporters who were there last night. [Changed that sentence a bit so I could note that Gatehouse updated its story with the “my way or the highway” snippet.] * Listen to Dillard… * Meanwhile, toward the end of his questioning, Bill Brady responded to an inquiry about how Bruce Rauner had praised former NY Mayor Bloomberg… * Dan Rutherford said he didn’t need to participate in the “clarification rounds” because he’d already answered the questions. He also pledged to remain totally positive in his TV ads and said he wouldn’t tack one way or another before the primary. He is what he says he is right now, he said, pointing to his “honesty” about his position on new revenue, which is that he won’t commit until he sees what the situation is after the election… * When it was his turn, Bruce Rauner said: “Here’s the situation, the special interest groups that make their money from government control Springfield… That’s the fact, it’s a tragedy.” “The government union bosses, the trial lawyers, these corrupt groups, they can’t do anything to me. I’m impenetrable to them,” Rauner said. He said his opponents are “part of the problem,” for voting “with Democrats” to raise taxes and fees, for big spending increases, for more debt, for bad pension deals, for pay raises for themselves. “I’m gonna be dragged through the mud, my family’s gonna be dragged through the mud, my businesses are gonna be dragged through the mud.” Rauner said the reason he was being attacked was because “my message is a threatening one” to the powers that be in Illinois. He said there was “no foundation” to the attacks so far. “There’s no there there.” Have a listen…
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- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:03 pm:
The “3″, Unions, the “2PACS”…
You’re on your own. Understand that. Today.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:04 pm:
Unbelievable. Is Dillard considered a crank in some circles? The dude is bedrock establishment.
How in the world can a guy like Dillard put deaths of seniors at Rauner’s door and it’s ignored?
That’s not a story? Are you kidding me? What’s going on?
- George - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:12 pm:
Most reporters are afraid to appear biased when covering debates. (And some are a little too lazy as well.) That’s why almost every news story about a political debate contains the phrase “no knockout punches were landed.”
- overcooked - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:14 pm:
Can the news outlets really be weighing $10- 20 million in Rauner ads for the general election vs covering this story and burying him now?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:15 pm:
When Bruce Rauner got the Op-Ed piece in the Trib, in rear time responding to the utter sham of a flip-flop on Minimum Wage, and the Dopes writing the editorials “shook their heads, approvingly” to Rauner’s flip-flop in the immediate, what do the “3″ and others think would happen?
The groundwork to discredit Rauner needed to start months and months ago. The “3″ let a Billionaire out-flank them, till the end; money, message, channels and back channels… Rauner has taken it all away.
It’s up to the “3″, Unions, the “2PACS”…
All that fiddling, as Rauner burned the money to slowly have you three wither on the vine.
“Where is the press” “Where is the outrage” “We know this…”
Months and months you had… It’s now up to you, and the Ground Game, and the networks of people, and the “2PACS”
Know it. Understand it. Get over it. Move on off it.
Now. Today. Work.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:15 pm:
Whatever anyone may think of Dillard, he deserves props on this.
The man sees someone trying to buy his party piece by piece.
He knows that won’t be for the betterment of Republicans or, if Rauner wins, for the betterment of Illinois.
People need to wake up, speak up and do so quickly.
- Samurai - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:16 pm:
Good Dillard performance post debate. No wonder no comment by Rauner; no reason to respond to it when the news papers don’t report it.
If know other Rauner irregularities come out, this could be it. Kirk, hope there are more drips…
- Samurai - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:16 pm:
No other–duh
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:19 pm:
The media will be all over Rauner…
… right after the primary if he manages to buy this election.
Willy’s right, got to beat the Baron on the ground.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:20 pm:
overcooked - it makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
As a coincidence, Rauner is the candidate Quinn most easily contrasts with. Rich guy vs populist.
Never mind the fact they’re both bad for unions, retirees and pensions.
Look! These stories write themselves! And imagine all the ads they’ll buy!
- Johnny Q. Suburban - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:21 pm:
Dan Rutherford needs to fire his campaign staff and start over.
- hisgirlfriday - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:27 pm:
As someone who watched that whole debate precisely so I could watch them go after Rauner, I’m annoyed Dillard saved those salvos for the post debate gangbang.
If these things weren’t important enough to Dillard for him to say them on stage to Rauner’s face and to the televised audience, then I can understand them not being viewed as important enough to include in debate coverage stories, especially when any reporter at that debate would have to be scrambling like mad to get stories filed before their papers would go to press given the realities today where downstate papers are sharing presses in other cities and some papers don’t even wait to print for sports scores to come in any more.
Just hope there’s followup and maybe Dillards quotes can get in that way, but man his advisers were foolish if they encouraged him to not go hard at Rauner during debate (when every reporter has a conflict bias and wanted to write the candidates tear each other’s faces off story) and didn’t realize that relying on post-debate sniping would screw up story balance and leave the scribes with a time crunch.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:28 pm:
Whichever of the “3″ has the most organized Ground Game, the most sophisticated GOTV, from ID, to voting the “pluses” can possibly survive.
If you are part of the “3″s Crew and you have no GOTV, no IDing of “pluses” at a real clip, statewide, and NO Election Day plan… You are fatally behind right now.
That is truth. If you answer with a “but…”, forget it, you are fatally flawed, with the “givens”… today.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:35 pm:
“That’s the fact, it’s a tragedy”
Rauner has the audacity to say this after people suffered for years and died in his businesses?
“make their money from government”
He has the audacity to say this after making millions off of Medicare and teachers’ pensions?
“my businesses are going to be dragged through the mud”
I’m willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, but this guy seems sociopathic to me. No sign of remorse or contrition about death and suffering in the nursing home? Instead, he’s playing the victim himself? Wow.
- Question - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:36 pm:
Is Rauner running for Governor so he doesn’t have to get deposed in these lawsuits? Is that possible?
It would seem bizarre, but so does cutting out the little quality of life old people in nursing homes have for money.
- too obvious - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:38 pm:
If the media ever decides that doing its job is more important than reaping Rauner ad money, then Rauner’s campaign is finished. Just on the nursing home story alone.
- D.P.Gumby - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:40 pm:
It’s hard to be dragged through the mud when you are up to your neck in mud that you bought yourself.
- Tom Joad - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:43 pm:
The press didn’t cover Dillard’s after hours attacks because he could have brought them up during the debate. He waited for an assembled group of reporters to attack. He wanted a forum all by himself. Why would the press run a one sided story after waiting through a boring debate?
- Chi - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:45 pm:
Rauner repeated in the press conference this idea that he’d go around to other states to find out the best ideas for education funding… why hasn’t he done this already? What’s stoping him? He has the money, and the resources… he’s gonna wiat for this wonderful blue ribbon panel until he gets elected? And then pass something revolutionary through a legislature that hates him? How in the world does he plan to accomplish this in one term?
Also, the “conflicts of interest” he claims government unions have, are the exact same relationship his firm has with public pension funds… they manage some money, make a fee, give a portion of that fee back as a campaign contribution. Except in his case there was a clear quid pro quo in several instances, whereas I would argue government unions are just exercising their free speech.
- Sue - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:45 pm:
Lets see- Illinois in recent survey is 5oth out of the 50 states for future job growth; Chicago is facing crippling tax increases to pay pension contributions; most are saying that even making the tax increase permanent, Illinois will continue to amass deficits- Yea lets go with the same old same old and hope things get batter- maybe it is time for someone like Rauner?
- walker - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:46 pm:
Why did they wait for the post debate questions?
- Bill White - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:47 pm:
=== If the media ever decides that doing its job is more important than reaping Rauner ad money, then Rauner’s campaign is finished. Just on the nursing home story alone. ===
Timing is everything.
- anonymoose - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:49 pm:
Hisgirlfriday, you voiced my sentiments exactly….and it really ticks me off.
Initially thought I tuned out the debate somewhere…my bathroom break? Had I somehow missed what I had been looking for…an honest to goodness emotional attack with some righteous indignation. The camera, lense blurred, panning to Mr. Rauner…and Mr. Rauner’s stoic rehearsed reply. ALAS….it is all…..
(I SCREAM) POST DEBATE????? 5 minutes after droning on and on Mr. Dillard gets to the point????? Mr. Dillard may as well had been practicing these lines in the shower at home.
- Chi - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:50 pm:
*knowing he’s been trolled by a Raunerbot
Sue- how are the tax increases “crippling”? We’ve got one of the lowest tax burdens in the Midwest. You want to elect a guy like Rauner based on a single prediction about future job growth?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:50 pm:
- Sue -,
If you are ethically and morally corrupt, Bruce Rauner is your candidate, all right!
Raunerbots, please learn. Talking points, that do not resolve the ethics and morals “Bruce Rauner” tries to hide away, are going to be met with the ethics and morals Bruce Rauner tries to hide.
Bruce Rauner is a Pay to Play insider with Rahm, and Rich Daley. “Same ole, same ole” my eye!
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:50 pm:
===He waited for an assembled group of reporters to attack.===
Um, then why would reporters bother having a press conference?
But I do agree that he should’ve said something more during the debate.
- Demoralized - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:52 pm:
Sue:
So you would get rid of the tax increase? That’s the height of irresponsibility.
- olddog - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:52 pm:
@ hisgirlfriday — I agree the print reporters would have had a time crutch after the debate, but they’ve had time by now to start working on follow-up stories, and even the downstate newspapers have websites …
The lesson I take away from this is an old one: Earned media is like free advice — it’s worth every cent you pay for it.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:57 pm:
The “3″, especially Dillard, must be kicking themselves for not even attempting a frontal assault.
Rauner will be with you guys no more than 3 more times;
Judge Smails and I…”Well, were waiting!”
Rauner is not Gidwitz. You should have learned that 2 polls and $4-5 million ago!
- Langhorne - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 3:59 pm:
Wow. High intensity sales pitch from rauner post debate. Full of buzzwords and political scare tactics. I give up. I am in. I will buy two time shares in raunerville. But not a damn policy on anything specific enuf to flesh out and evaluate.
Do away w public unions? No collective bargaining? Union contributions are corrupt, but dropping $300,000 on rendell and doubling your allocation is just fine? And the reporters just stood there
- Soccermom - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:01 pm:
If Dillard had said it during the debate, it would have thrown him into the top spot. Instead, he made two bites of the cherry and took another step toward making this story “yesterday’s news.”
Man up, guys. Here’s a rule from martial arts to keep in mind - -make your first punch your hardest punch, because you may not get to take another.
Gosh I hate Rauner. I am fairly certain that PQ can beat him handily, but it scares me that he might actually buy his way onto the ballot. And there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, as my beloved grandmother used to say.
- Walter Mitty - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:01 pm:
OW has harped…Begged… But it may be too late. Instead of blaming the media should the “career” politicians be concerned by the new comer? He is beating them at THEIR game. As for the General, if it is Rauner, and frankly at this point, how is it not? I wonder if they did not attack in the debate because it may not poll well? Linking Romney to Bain may have worked before, is it not a winner with the Barron? The press has a job to do, but so do the opponents. It seems like the time to capitalize was last night. That’s a story. Next week, possibly white noise… If he gets to the General, which a few months ago did seem almost impossible. What will PQ run on? What will be his success stories? He burned the unions, the teacher’s especially… Their silence is deafening.
- Arthur Andersen - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:02 pm:
Preach it Willy, Preach it. All this fun stuff is for naught if your pluses aren’t at the polls.
Post-debate Dillard reminds me of when I was a high school debater and would devise the absolute slam-dunk, killer argument against the other team’s case…on the way home aboard the school bus.
Gotta leave it all on the floor, man.
I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Rauner’s businesses “being dragged through the mud,” either. Now there’s some baloney, BTW. One would expect that other media might dig a bit deeper beyond Ibendahl before firing off a story. AA is looking forward to the day when the Baron has not only to defend abusing Grandma but losing State workers’ retirement savings in the process.
- Jon Zahm - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:02 pm:
I attended this debate and watched it live, including the press conference. The rules and prelim discussions with the camps discouraged back and forth between the candidates. The League of Women Voters forced each candidate to do separate pressers. They should have done all four together so there would be a free for all opportunity. But Rauner would have declined that format because he does not want to fight on turf that he does not have controlled, or at least neutered.
- Walter Mitty - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:04 pm:
He is doing more than buying… He is beating them at the ground game… That is scary.
- PoolGuy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:06 pm:
I think Cincinnatus answered this one pretty good
- Soccermom - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:08 pm:
Rich, I’m going to disagree. The press conference is an opportunity to expand on your 60-second sound bites, not to start a whole new narrative. Dillard could have said all that stuff in front of the audience, but he waited until the postgame. Strategic error.
- Samurai - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:09 pm:
==What will PQ run on? What will be his success stories? He burned the unions, the teacher’s especially… Their silence is deafening==
That he is not Rauner is enough for me.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:10 pm:
- Jon Zahm -,
So Dillard lacks the debate skills to turn an answer into a shot/jab?
You have to prep your Principle to go after the target.
Rauner attacked and blamed everyone but his hunting dog.
Excuses lead to losses. They do.
- Hey There - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:10 pm:
Rutherford refusing to “go negative” is crazy. If so, he doesn’t deserve to win the primary and, if by some miracle he does, PQ will crush him in the general.
And isn’t the same media which is essentially giving Rauner a pass pre-primary the same media which gave Scott Lee Cohen a pass pre-primary? If I was paranoid I’d say the media wants the craziest rich person to win the GOP primary so the Democratic candidate wins the general, but only after the rich guy spends boatloads of cash on TV, etc tilting at windmills. But I’m not paranoid–despite these pesky black helicopters following me around all day for some reason.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:11 pm:
Agree - Soccermom -. Agree 100%
Strategic error.
- Hey There - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:11 pm:
And if Dillard wants to win the primary he needs to go after Rauner in the debates…not in the press conferences no one watches.
- Classico - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:12 pm:
Listening to post-debate, I’d say this race is toast.
Rauner’s message is 5X stronger than any of his opponents. And it is conservative, which resonates through the base.
The lawsuits out there will be easily deflected. Rauner is the nominee, book it.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:14 pm:
Dillard got his “I could have won but for 193 votes” excuse out there, Dillard isn’t savy enough to go after Rahm’s vacation buddy.
Less time on spin for excuses, more time understanding the rules to get shots in…
- Hey There - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:14 pm:
“The government union bosses, the trial lawyers, these corrupt groups, they can’t do anything to me. I’m impenetrable to them,”
Uh, Brucey Baby: From what I read earlier this week, I think the trial lawyers DID do something to you and your businesses in those lawsuits.
- Skeptic - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:16 pm:
“they can’t do anything to me. I’m impenetrable to them” “my message is a threatening one” “[It’s them, not me.]” All that’s missing is quote from Moby Dick or James Joyce or Greek mythology and it’d be perfect!
- Jaded - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:16 pm:
==not in the press conferences no one watches==
Fyi, no one watches the debates either.
- Walter Mitty - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:16 pm:
Samurai…And the same could be said in reverse… And clearly that point resonates… I think months back when it looked like a long shot…Rich said underestimating the Farmer at their own peril… I think that comment is more relevant. The miles and miles on the Ford along with the money are showing dividends… If it were just money, he would not be leading. The talking points are working…The hard work is paying off..Every time the opportunity passes…He pulls further ahead.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:17 pm:
===Rauner’s message is 5X stronger than any of his opponents. And it is conservative, which resonates through the base.===
Rauner is running against himself. What he describes as an insider, IS Bruce Rauner. Pat Quinn and the Unions the very night after the Primary will begin, what the “3″ refused to do; Take Rauner to task early, often, and unabashed.
- CollegeStudent - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:24 pm:
“Rauner can’t be bought”
He’s right, he can’t be bought. Because greed bought him a long time ago.
- redleg - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:25 pm:
All I got from this debate is that the union/welfare/state retiree/state employee-base will vote for anything but Rauner.
That’s right….I put state retiree in with the group. As a state retiree I was never unionized nor did I consider myself or my peers to be part of welfare. I still don’t but thanks to a lot of the media and politicians, I and others fall into that group, like it or not.
It is a HUGE block of voters. Good luck with that Rauner.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:27 pm:
Time for centrists to form a new political party. Don’t worry, the conservatives won’t miss us.
- Endangered Moderate Species - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:28 pm:
It’s sad, but I don’t believe the negatives on Rauner will hurt him in the Primary. Many GOP voters on the street are talking about the buzz created by Rauner.
The General election will be a different story. I do not see the majority of voters buying Rauner’s snake oil.
- too obvious - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:28 pm:
“Rauner can’t be bought” because he’s been the one doing the buying in Springfield. It’s so simple. Too bad the GOP couldn’t field someone to oppose Rauner with even 5th grade political skills.
- Walter Mitty - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:29 pm:
Redleg…. And what if he uses the liability that people say against him… You want pension reform, I am the guy that got HUGE returns on the funds. I want to do that for you… Here’s how… I think there is clearly a big block of voters that are with me, the state is a mess. In the General, it’s not by party lines only… This time feels different…
- anonymoose - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:33 pm:
“The rules and prelim discussions with the camps discouraged back and forth between the candidates. The League of Women Voters forced each candidate to do separate pressers.” I get there are rules…and rules are made to be broken.
What, is there a debate nun with a wooden ruler enforcing this? Down on money, down in the polls and down on luck (some candidates soon to be two time loser?), please go for the debate clash. Not fisticuffs, nothing physical - but for crying out loud, if the candidates do not bring the argument, why even have a debate?
(ANNOUNCER) And the candidates approach the stage….are firmly shaking hands and broadly smiling….nodding heads in agreement….for the next 90 minutes…..
- Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:33 pm:
Like him or no, NICE JOB by Kirk Dillard in that post-debate press conference, pointing out the facts about Rauner’s many shortcomings. And thank YOU for noting it, even if the Media strangely enough took a pass on referencing Mr. Dillard’s remarks. Those things needed to be said.
And I’ve got news for Danny Rutherford: if he DOES decline from going negative AT ALL on Rauner in his TV Ads, barring some shocker, like Kirk dropping out and pledging/urging his supporters’ votes for DR, in my view, or the Media going crazy attacking Rauner (unlikely) he can just about hang it up then–Rauner’s lead remains too big for him to cut into it enough to emerge ahead…
I was amazed how easily the Opponents let BR off the hook on the whole last night. If they don’t take the gloves off like Kirk did a little IN the Debate and certainly afterwards in the Presser–because it NEEDS to be done–’cuz otherwise Brucie is a decent enough “Used Car Salesman” to lure the less well-informed in to voting for him–if you ask me, all 3 of them’ll become history then…!
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Jan 24, 14 @ 4:35 pm:
The League of Women voters consistently run the worst debates because they don’t know a thing about politics. This was no exception. It’s unfortunate that they still have the debate franchise.