* Tribune…
Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner today said he blames Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for the deaths of child-abuse victims whose families previously had contact with the state’s child-welfare agency.
“Yes,” Rauner said when asked by reporters if the deaths of 95 children with past contact with the Department of Children and Family Services from 2011-2013 were attributable to Quinn.
“Pat Quinn is, in the end, responsible for the failings at the Department of Children and Family Services. If it was a one-year problem or a temporary problem you could say, ‘OK, maybe, there was, it’s not really his responsibility.’ But he’s been governor for six years. He’s had a revolving door of failure at Department of Children and Family Services for years and years,” Rauner said.
But…
Quinn spokeswoman Anderson said that an increase in deaths from 2010 to the 2011-2013 time period was in part attributable to a change in reporting requirements. That change required a finding of neglect if an infant died after being left in an unsafe sleep situation, such as in bed with a parent. Those reporting requirements were changed to the former rules in March.
* And YDD makes a very interesting point in comments…
I would note that the opening scene of the Rauner ad shows an infant being placed to sleep with a blanket in his crib.
One of the leading causes of sleep suffocation, according to every medical expert.
The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends infants sleep alone, on their backs, and in a crib that is free of blankets, toys, and other possible suffocation hazards.
Sleep suffocations were the single largest cause of death in the Sun-Times report.
The child in this ad is clearly being shown placed at risk, apparently unbeknownst to Rauner, who is promoting a very unsafe practice.
He appears to be right about the AAP and the ad itself.
- Carl Nyberg - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:05 pm:
Lemme guess. This is another area where Rauner has goals but no plan.
Am I right?
- train111 - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:07 pm:
So if Quinn is directly responsible for the deaths under his watch, by the same logic, isn’t Rauner also directly responsible for the deaths that occurred under his watch?
- Voice of Reason - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:08 pm:
Whoh. Harsh ad which the general public will probably believe, but in reality, I personally don’t blame Quinn for this. Half of the kids taken in were at high risk. Its not like he or his agency personally hurt children. Its a little over the top for me. I would imagine child services stats in general are pretty depressing. Its just the situation. And don’t kid yourself, the first thing Rauner will do to cut government if elected will be to cut social services.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:08 pm:
Curious Rauner doesn’t have surrogates to dish out the red meat. If it can’t be his l.g. candidate, can’t he trot out his state party chair or some legislator?
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:09 pm:
Rich -
Thank you for sharing this lifesaving information with parents.
YDD
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:12 pm:
Voice of Reason:
I doubt Rauner’s own wife even believes the ad.
She is a child welfare expert, so if you can’t bring her out to defend it, I am guessing no one really believes the ads were defensible.
Hey, I know - as k Jim Edgar if he was personally responsible for all of the child deaths that occurred at DCFS during the eight years he was governor?
Or, ask Rauner if he thinks Jim Edgar was responsible.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:15 pm:
wordlsinger:
The problem is that EVERY SINGLE Republican voted against restoring budget cuts to DCFS to prevent 2/3 of DCFS staff from being laid off, including Tom Cross.
I don’t think any sane Republican wants to defend this ad, because then they will have to answer questions about their own record.
- DuPage Moderate - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:16 pm:
Who cares anymore? we have a group of children running against a group of children.
Despicable all-around.
I can’t stand Quinn…and Rauner is quickly surging to the same fate.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:17 pm:
- YDD - is On It. Well done on that.
To the Post,
The one…one… thing Rauner really shouldn’t be touting as a “lead” hit on Quinn, especially on the idea or belief of it being a reason for deaths…is responsibility… by being the head of something, and this is being the Executive of Illinois Government.
This is either a blatant attempt to ignore who Bruce Rauner is in regards to Nursing Homes, and his “role”…
Or the Rauner Crew is ready to accept responsibility for Rauner’s role in the deaths of seniors.
Now if neither of those are in play, then you can make a case that Rauner and his Crew have now gone into a denial mode of who Rauner is, and by “inoculating” himself, well, well, WELL.., after the Nursing Home Ads have been saturating voters mind,…
Rauner must honestly believe he has been successful at … everything…every…thing…he has done, including Nursing Home care.
That is as cold a premise… that a man and a Crew … can believe.
It’s just takes your breath away… the hubris of how great Rauner thinks he is.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:18 pm:
“- DuPage Moderate - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:16 pm:
Who cares anymore? we have a group of children running against a group of children.
Despicable all-around.
I can’t stand Quinn…and Rauner is quickly surging to the same fate.”
I entirely agree.
Where’s the “none of the above” option?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:18 pm:
There’s no profit motive for Quinn in bad things happening at DCFS.
In both the Florida nursing home suits and the Georgia Medicaid fraud cases, there were profit motives in taking taxpayer money and providing shoddy care.
- Soccermom - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:23 pm:
Hey, Rauner — here’s an ad for you:
If Pat Quinn is re-elected, every person in Illinois is going to die. Every single one.
Since Pat Quinn became Governor, more than 600,000 Illinoisans have died. Six Hundred Thousand. And all of the people who voted for him in the last election are now four years closer to death.
If Pat Quinn is re-elected, you are going to die someday. Is that really what you want?
- Anon - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:23 pm:
== The problem is that EVERY SINGLE Republican voted against restoring budget cuts to DCFS to prevent 2/3 of DCFS staff from being laid off, including Tom Cross. ==
Can any reporter ask Rauner if he believes those Republicans were wrong? Or if the blame for cuts at DCFS are bipartisan? Or if Edgar was to blame for deaths that occurred on his watch?
- 1776 - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:27 pm:
I’m not a fan of the ad but Quinn opened himself up when he blamed Rauner for deaths at nursing homes that he invested in. Same principle. If the Quinn folks want to dish it out they should take their own medicine.
That being said, I don’t think it resonates.
- Tito Green - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:27 pm:
Can a candidate who proudly claims to have “no social agenda” credibly weigh in on his opponent’s performance on social issues like child welfare?
I know logic and reason have no role in campaign ads, but, it seems that you can’t dodge social issues on your own, but call out your opponent’s performance.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:30 pm:
===Can any reporter ask Rauner if he believes those Republicans were wrong?===
Well, don’t forget Bruce Rauner believes 1/3 of the ILGOP GA is corrupt…
…1/3 are corrupt. That is what Bruce Rauner believes.
Am I shocked no surrogates? I would be more surprised to see Slip and Sue out there talking, like a good #2 is suppose to do.
Slip and Sue wants jobs, heck, ask her, “Bruce Rauner hired me”…Slip and Sue wanted a job with the Quinn Adminstration…
Seeing Slip and Sue out there would shock me more than any of the 2/3 non-corrupt members of the ILGOP GA touting Tom Hagen, er, Rauner.
- AlabamaShake - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:31 pm:
** he blamed Rauner for deaths at nursing homes that he invested in.**
SIgh… I”m so tired of this line. Rauner/GTCR did NOT just “invest” in the nursing homes. They ran the business. They selected the management team. Rauner chaired the board of some of these companies.
Rauner has explicitly said that he was a hands-on guy in all of the businesses that they bought and ran.
The Rauner folks are making it seem like Rauner owned a few pieces of stock.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:33 pm:
1776:
There is a WORLD of difference.
I would say that Rauner is claiming that every death that occurs in a hospital is the hospital administrator’s fault.
Except that what he is really arguing is that any death that occurs to any member of a patient’s family within a year after that patient checks out of the hospital is the hospital administrator’s fault.
It is absurd.
And even the Sun-Times knows it.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:35 pm:
In Rauner’s case, his companies were found to be at fault. At DCFS, it was the exact opposite: the change in the number of reported deaths was found to be due to a change in how they were reported, not an actual increase.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:35 pm:
There’s no profit motive for Quinn in bad things happening at DCFS.
I’ll go further.
There is no motive, period, for either candidate, on the accusations being leveled against them regarding deaths occurring.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:36 pm:
===Quinn opened himself up when he blamed Rauner for deaths at nursing homes that he invested in.===
The families of several nursing home patients who died blamed Rauner’s company for those deaths. Quinn is repeating the charge, but he sure as heck didn’t invent it out of whole cloth as Rauner is doing with this DCFS charge. Wake me up when someone sues the Quinn administration for wrongful death in one of these cases.
And as YDD said, I recall an enormous spike of child fatalities when Jim Edgar was Governor. In no way was that attributable to Jim Edgar, nor should it have been. Rauner is totally out of bounds with this attack.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:39 pm:
–There is no motive, period, for either candidate, on the accusations being leveled against them regarding deaths occurring.–
Huh? Your syntax is a little funky, but I think you’re missing my point regarding profit motive.
Regarding the political hits, obviously there are motives for what they’re doing.
- A Jack - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 1:43 pm:
The union “bosses” that Rauner has bashed repeatedly have been requesting more DCFS investigators for years. A lot of these cuts happened under Blago where DCFS lost about a quarter of its staff. I am quite sure many of the commenters putting the blame on Quinn are the same who wanted a reduction in state staffing levels. In reality the blame for these terrible deaths is on those who benefitted the most under Illinois’ previous low income tax.
- chi - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:00 pm:
Someone should press charges against Obama for the murder of every senior that’s received medicare…
Rauner is off the rails. But take note: he is obviously willing to say anything to try to win.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:03 pm:
This is another example of how BR is making it even more difficult to govern if he wins. By his own logic, every single child neglect death will fall right on his head. So be it.
- Keyser Soze - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:04 pm:
Rauner needn’t tell us that PQ is a doofus; we already know that. Would that he stop throwing mud and instead give us a reason or two to vote for him rather than his opponent. That would be refreshing.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:06 pm:
–This is another example of how BR is making it even more difficult to govern if he wins.–
He want’s the gig as a status symbol. I’ve yet to see anything in over a year that indicates any interest in governing.
My guess if he does win, he’ll be overcome with a case of Potomac Fever in a hurry.
- AFSCME Steward - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:11 pm:
“And as YDD said, I recall an enormous spike of child fatalities when Jim Edgar was Governor. In no way was that attributable to Jim Edgar, nor should it have been. Rauner is totally out of bounds with this attack.”
DCFS has had court involvement since the late 80’s. Understaffing has always been the issue.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:23 pm:
===This is another example of how BR is making it even more difficult to govern if he wins. By his own logic, every single child neglect death will fall right on his head. So be it.===
Rich says it all right there…
Watch a Governor Rauner govern won’t be nearly as…”entertaining”…as his Governor’s Office LLs working and talking to the Speaker’s or President’s Crews.
Priceless.
- Louis G Atsaves - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:32 pm:
===This is another example of how BR is making it even more difficult to govern if he wins. By his own logic, every single child neglect death will fall right on his head. So be it.===
Kind of blows the “he never accepts responsibility” argument of Quinn right out of the water, when you state it that way.
Hard to intelligently analyze eye poking and eye gouging by both camps right about now. The eye pokes and gouges are what they are, I guess.
- Casual observer - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:33 pm:
Rich is right that Bruce is boxing himself into impossible to achieve promises. He’s going on the floor of the legislature and twist some arms and maybe break a few. And he will attend important committee hearings. IF he is elected I predict there will be a very important hearing that somehow conflicts with his schedule.
Headline: governor doesn’t break arms he breaks promise by not even showing up.
I’m sorry I cant resist adding: did he think no one would notice?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:34 pm:
===Kind of blows the “he never accepts responsibility” argument of Quinn right out of the water===
Actually, no. He never takes responsibility for anything, but believes everyone else should take direct responsibility for pretty much everything.
He’ll find out how difficult he’s made it for himself if he climbs into the big chair.
- Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 2:35 pm:
Tit-for-tat, downward spiral, etc, etc.
So much time spent blaming each other and making each other look bad, so little time spent developing new approaches or making much progress on these problems.
- Roadiepig - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 3:04 pm:
Isn’t it time for one of these two candidates to blame the spread of Ebola on the other?
- Ginhouse Tommy - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 3:14 pm:
Bruce Rauner will indeed find out that there is no place to hide and the responsibility lies with the man in the chair. He really has painted himself into a corner.
- A guy... - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 3:24 pm:
Interesting: When the economy is humming along at a good pace, no one is interested or talking about any of these things. Not sure when the argument will return to that, but pretty sure it has to at some point. It’s the common thread among voters. Hope it gets there sooner rather than later.
- Responsa - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 3:37 pm:
==Bruce Rauner will indeed find out that there is no place to hide and the responsibility lies with the man in the chair. He really has painted himself into a corner.==
Actually, voters WANT them ALL to be painted into a corner. Whether it’s Rauner or Quinn, I think most voters DO believe that responsibility lies with “the man in the chair”. Isn’t this really what these two ridiculously over the top counter punches from both campaigns are all about?
- Redux - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 3:42 pm:
I’d be curious… in addition to understaffing/cuts as DCFS, did its overall caseload increase? It seems to me at a time when unemployment and poverty are up, they would have more unfortunate kids to care for… stretching resources even more. What a sad thing to exploit. The ick factor keeps getting ickier.
- Steve - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 3:49 pm:
Like all politicians, if Pat Quinn wants to take credit for some economic numbers :he also has to take responsibility for death via government. But, Rich is right, if Rauner wins he will be held to the same accountability. A shocking concept. People get fired and “let go” all the time in the private sector. It should happen to politicians and bureaucrats more often . But, Bruce Rauner… be careful what you wish for . Do you really want to be held accountable for the public sector in Illinois???
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 3:59 pm:
- death via government -
So now the state actually killed children? Are you out of your mind?
- Coffee Cup - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 4:24 pm:
This is a de ja vue moment that reminds me of when the Democrats blamed George Ryan for the deaths of those young children in the van. The van burned up when it got in an accident ultimately due to a trucker who had failed his driver’s license test but made the necessary pay-offs to George’s man and got a license anyway.
Was George Ryan really personally responsible for the deaths of these 7 or so young children of some minister? Ahhh, yeah I think he was although George will go to his grave saying he wasn’t. Pat Quinn has his patronage pals in cushy state jobs and I doubt that Pat Quinn bothered to see if they were qualified for their positions. I can see a great many similarities between Pat Quinn and George Ryan when I start to reflect on it. I guess Bruce Rauner has also finally seen many of the similarities.
- Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 4:49 pm:
== So now the state actually killed children? ==
Government agencies and care providers can be negligent of children and adults just as easily as the private sector. iirc, the Marion VA settled a large wrongful death lawsuit a few years ago. Plenty more available with just a google search.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 5:56 pm:
Some of the kids probably could have been saved, some not. It’s the way of the child welfare system–nationally. There are probably some improvements to be made at DCFS, and maybe whoever wins will try to find and implement them–or maybe not. I doubt anyone in Illinois ever lost an election over poor outcomes at the state’s child welfare agency. Now, if it were
“The Department of the Fight Against Terrorism against the Homeland,” well, billions would fall on the agency tomorrow. Hundreds of billions.
- Mighty M. Mouse - Tuesday, Oct 7, 14 @ 7:25 pm:
===This is another example of how BR is making it even more difficult to govern if he wins.===
It’s also an example of Rauner copying a page straight out of Blago’s playbook.
But then, where’s the surprise in that?