* Phil Bradley writes that he won’t be supporting Bruce Rauner. One reason: Rauner wants to start at the top…
My work in government and my campaigning for and holding public office taught me many things that are unknown by most who haven’t paid their dues by being involved.
I remember my first run for the Lincoln Land Community College board. I put up yard signs all over several counties, met the editors of all the papers, sent out mailings and spent time in many small towns shaking hands. In those days few people had even heard of the college. Fewer still knew it was run by an elected board. And no one had heard of me.
But in a grubby little bar in Ashland, I walked up to a disheveled, grizzled guy, shook his hand and asked for his vote. And learned more than any political science class ever taught me.
“How do you feel about the semester system?” the man asked. Totally unexpected. (At the time, Lincoln Land was considering changing from a quarterly calendar to semesters.)
What followed was a long conversation about academic calendars and how the change would benefit his work schedule and his ability to get the degree in agriculture that his future job depended on.
Right there I understood that what government does affects people’s lives in big ways.
In fact, what I praise is experience. As a candidate, as an officeholder, as someone doing the day-to-day work of government, one builds experience. You learn that many different people have many different ideas. That you need to listen. You need to understand. You need to compromise.
You learn that there are few easy answers, no quick answers. And sometimes there aren’t right answers, just better ones.
I totally get Phil’s point, which has been made one way or another by several commenters here over the past few months.
But Rauner has been traveling Illinois, so give him credit for trying. And I don’t think that everybody always has to run for a lower job first.
Adlai Stevenson, II held some appointed US government positions before he was elected governor. And he was a good governor. Jim Thompson was a US Attorney before he was elected governor. I think he was one of our best governors.
Is experience with grassroots campaigning helpful? Yep. No doubt. But there is something to be said for a fresh face.
Then again, Dan Walker was a fresh face who’d never been elected to anything before he won his gubernatorial campaign, and we know how that turned out.
So, also, beware. Everybody’s different.
* Speaking of Walker, I excerpted this 1980 Illinois Issues story last week…
Walker was accused of attempting to disguise how he had expanded the number of employees in the governor’s office because of his campaign pledge not to do so.
Pat Quinn was one of those guys who Walker sneaked onto the payroll.
Governors do this sort of thing all the time, of course. And it continues under Quinn, who constantly boasts about trimming his own office budget.
For example, this is from the Illinois Civil Service Commission’s May, 2013 report…
As to Item E, this request is for a Legislative Liaison or Legislative Staff Person at the Department of Children and Family Services, a position that reports to the Chief Legislative Liaison who reports to the Director. The position description contains
language that this position will be performing “back office” responsibilities in the agency’s legislative office as well as more traditional legislative liaison responsibilities. Staff had a concern because historically the Commission has indicated it would not
extend principal policy exemptions to positions in the legislative office that perform administrative duties. However, a check of this position description to other already exempt legislative liaison positions in the agency revealed that they are, for the most part, similar. The agency has also indicated that this position has not been included in any bargaining unit. For those reasons, Staff recommended approval of this request provided the Commissioners are comfortable with the agency having six Section 4d(3) exempt legislative liaison positions. Commissioner Krey inquired whether any of the legislative liaison positions are vacant. Michelle Jackson indicated they were not.
Commissioner Cummings inquired why the agency needs six legislative liaisons as five seems excessive. Michelle Jackson replied that two of the positions are currently assigned to the Governor’s Office by Interagency Agreement, doing similar work on behalf of the agency as well as multiple other agencies. Chairman FitzGerald inquired which agencies were involved. Michelle Jackson indicated she was unsure which specific agencies were involved.
Emphasis added.
* And this June, 2013 Civil Service Commission report, pointed to by a commenter last week, looks a tad suspicious as well…
As to Item F, this request is for a Legislative Liaison at the Department of Public Health, a position that reports to the Deputy Director who reports to the Director. This was also continued from last month due to concerns over whether it was simply performing clerical work or true liaison responsibilities. The agency submitted a clarified position description which confirmed the latter so Staff recommended approval of this request since it is presently excluded from a collective bargaining unit and so long as the Commission is comfortable with the agency having six exempt legislative liaisons. Commissioner Krey inquired how many of these were presently filled. Executive Director Stralka responded that his best recall was four of the six were occupied.
IDPH has six liaison positions? Six?
…Adding… I meant to put this here and forgot. Bill Daley, of course, has never been elected to anything. So, his past associations need to come under strong scrutiny. For example…
U.S. energy regulators are accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co. of manipulating electricity prices in California and the Midwest in 2010 and 2011.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in an enforcement notice Monday that the bank used improper bidding strategies to squeeze excessive payments from the agencies that run the power grids in California and the Midwest.
This happened during Daley’s tenure at JPMorgan Chase. The bank settled…
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today approved a stipulation and consent agreement under which JP Morgan Ventures Energy Corporation (JPMVEC) will pay $410 million in penalties and disgorgement to ratepayers for allegations of market manipulation stemming from the company’s bidding activities in electricity markets in California and the Midwest from September 2010 through November 2012.
Under the agreement, JPMVEC will pay a civil penalty of $285 million to the U.S. Treasury and disgorge $125 million in unjust profits. The first $124 million of the disgorged profits will go to ratepayers in the California Independent System Operator (California ISO), which operates the California electricity market. The other $1 million will go to ratepayers in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator includes Ameren’s Illinois territory. So, while there wasn’t a huge disgorgement for the Midwest, it was still something and it impacted Illinois and, therefore, could very well come up against Daley in the spring primary campaign.
*** UPDATE *** Daley called and made something clear: “I wasn’t involved in the trading business in any way shape or form,” adding that he hadn’t yet read the FERC complaint or details of the settlement. He said he was mainly aware that JPMorgan Chase was involved in the electric trading business through media reports.
It was, I’m pretty sure, way out of his purview. But it was still his company, so it’s probably fair game in a campaign.
* Related…
* GOP candidate Rauner visits Lakewood: “I don’t think there should be tenure in the schools,” Rauner said. “That doesn’t exist anywhere else in our society. If you’re a good teacher, you should get rewarded. If you’re an ineffective teacher, you should be helped and try to improve. But if you don’t improve, do a different career.”
* Governor candidate Rauner talks jobs creation, pensions in Aurora: “I’m not a politician, I’ve never run for office,” he said. “I didn’t even run for student council in high school.”
* GOP governor candidates make a stop in Elburn: Rauner said his business background as a venture capitalist will help run government more like a business.
- too obvious - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:49 am:
Rauner with his “I’m not a politician, I’ve never run for office.”
God aren’t we all tired of that old shtick? News flash people, if you’re running for governor or senator or whatever, you’re a politician. Congratulations, now deal with it. Stop trying to insult our intelligence.
Rauner’s blowing a ton of money for the same old, horrible warmed-over advice. How did this guy get so rich again?
- siriusly - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:54 am:
Everytime Rauner talks about school reform, someone needs to ask him if that includes reform for the admissions process of selective public magnet schools.
- RNUG - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:55 am:
Hiding Gov office employees on agency payrolls is, as Rich says, nothing new. One of my relatives was a Thompson aide “ghost” for a number of years …
And you’ll also find a lot of Gov office initiatives and equipment funded out of agency line items if you know where to look.
- Reformer - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 11:57 am:
Why doesn’t some enterprising reporter file a FOIA for all of the Interagency Agreements with the Governor’s Office? Be interesting to see how many there are…
- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:08 pm:
Disgorgement! That’s a great word. If you use a mask and gun at 95th and the Ryan it is armed robbery if you are a Wall Street bank hustler and you steal $125 million from electric users in CA and the Midwest including IL it is called disgorgement.
Capt Fax the total is only small because they only collected data on MISO and the end of longer period.
We believe you are the first IL journalist to mention the Chase snatch and their guilty plea
- Norseman - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:09 pm:
All these liaisons and you still hear complaints from legislative secretaries about unreturned phone calls.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:11 pm:
It’s about time someone paid attention to this. Too bad BGA’s been wasting its time with the silly stuff while this crap runs rampant. Quinn has been padding his budget like this for years.
- Chavez-respecting Obamist - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:14 pm:
We spent 8 recent years with the MBA President and look how well running the government like a business turned out nationally.
- DanL60 - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:18 pm:
“Hey look, I turned $300,000 in campaign contributions into $4 MILLION in just a year. Imagine what I can do when I get my hands on a couple billion: I won’t be just milking cows, if you get my drift.”
- The Captain - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:18 pm:
This item has a lot of interesting (to me) subjects. Let’s start with the experience one first.
Like everyone else I think there is value in being a bit of an outsider, someone who can look at our problems with a fresh perspective, but only in moderation and up to a point. We’ve come to fetishize inexperience in our elected officials and it’s a mistake. If you need brain surgery do you want to be operated on by the career brain surgeon who studied brain surgery in school, worked in the field all his/her life and has years of experience performing successful brain surgeries or would you like to have an outsider with a fresh perspective cut open your head? Yeah it’s an, ahem, no-brainer.
In an effort to run campaigns against Washington/Springfield we’ve taken this concept way too far.
- reformer - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:19 pm:
SO JP Morgan pays a $410 million penalty, but no individuals are held accountable. If Rep Ford is convicted, however, he likely goes to the slammer. The lesson is it pays to steal $hundreds of millions, not thousands.
- The Captain - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:24 pm:
The other interesting topic has to do with these budget practices. It has also been common to artificially reduce headcount by moving full time employee jobs to full time contractor jobs. You have plenty of state agencies where two employees work side by side with no discernible difference between them only one gets paid out of the payroll line and another gets paid out of the contractor line and the latter doesn’t appear in the officially reported headcount totals. It’s just a headcount game and it’s as old as the detail-from-the-agency game.
- Soccermom - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:34 pm:
Dear Mr. Rauner,
I am sending you a copy of my resume in the hopes that I can join your campaign as campaign manager.
As you can see, I have never managed a campaign before, so I do not have any bad habits and I have not been corrupted by working with people in politics. I do have some experience in things that have nothing to do with campaigns, and I was good at those things. So I can assure you that I would be much better at running your campaign than anybody who has done campaign-running in the past.
I look forward to working with you and learning more about Illinois government.
Very sincerely yours,
Soccermom
- Voice of Reason - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:37 pm:
Here’s the problem with Rauner’s campaign: He thinks Illinois is Wisconsin and Indiana. He emulates Scott Walker’s “tough talk” and Mitch Daniels’ “hokeyness” “Can you send in $5 or $10 so that I can put gas in my Ford??”
Walker could talk tough with the legislative supporters to back him up. Daniels is, well - hokey.
If he somehow is elected Governor he will be confronted with a Dem. controlled Senate & House. Maybe not super-majorities, but majorities. That is a fact.
Quinn couldn’t lead becuase he couldn’t get his own party to back him and they were in the majority. Rauner has continued to attack his own party members - and they are in the minority.
He gave $200k to the group that attacked Shock, but claimed that he had no control over them. “His wife” has donated a fortune to liberal Democrats. He has no control over her.
Question: How is he going to control Madigan et al??
If you want 4 more years of legislative gridlock overseen by a leader who can’t lead - Rauner is your many. In that case we’ve traded Squeezy for Hokey. Sad.
- Wensicia - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:52 pm:
“I’m not a politician…”
But, you’re trying to run a campaign like another politician who failed. He had money, corporate experience and wealthy donators, too, but he failed with a far more diverse population than Illinois. Keep up with the Romney playbook; pretending to be folksy didn’t help him, either.
- Gregor Samsa - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 12:53 pm:
(stolen from a stand-up comedian)
Politics has to be the only job where the applicants flat out tell you they hate the position and have no qualifications or experience in the work, but they’ll do a great job at it if you let them. Can you imagine an applicant for a burger flipper job saying: “I don’t cook, I hate hamburgers, I don’t and never have eaten them, I think they should be eliminated from everyone’s diet, but I will be the best hamburger-maker ever, if you hire me, because my background in accounting prepared me for this.” ?
But we send people to state and federal legislatures that swear they hate everything about government and want to tear it all down. And then we wonder why there’s gridlock everywhere.
Maybe we should stop electing the unqualified and treat this like H.R. would treat any other job. How can it be worse than what we do now.
- Norseman - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 1:34 pm:
=== didn’t even run for student council in high school ===
That cliches it, I’m not voting for somebody who didn’t run for student council.
*** Oswego Willy for Governor - he doesn’t wear button-down shirts to the fair. ***
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 1:34 pm:
Dear Soccermom,
Thank you for your interest in running my campaign. Unfortunately in our due diligence process, we discovered that you actually have an abundance of experience in campaigns. We feel it would be a detriment to have someone that knows what the hell they’re talking about on our campaign. We prefer the “someday we’ll tell you what I think but for now we’ll just ride the outsider train to glory” approach.
Best of luck in your campaign endeavors.
Sincerely,
Chicago Cynic a/k/a Bruce Rauner’s campaign guru
- Voice of Reason - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 1:51 pm:
Google Chip Englander, Rauner’s Campaign Manager, his most recent candidate finished 3rd out of 4 in Wisconsin!!
- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 1:58 pm:
Pretty BankerBilly captured cash from Chase energy wonder who ante’s up for the “disgorgement” or fines from the guilty plea?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:00 pm:
- Soccermom -,
How funny! Kudos!
- Norseman -,
When I go to the Fair this year, I will be wearing a Tom Cross Golf Shirt, 3 buttons, but not button-down dress shirt.
No snark, 5th Grade, was on Student Council…
- Cincinnatus - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:05 pm:
OW,
“… I will be wearing a Tom Cross Golf Shirt, 3 buttons, but not button-down dress shirt.”
No Fire Madigan sportsware?
- Chavez-respecting Obamist - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:10 pm:
He was the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at a corporation which acted irresponsibly towards consumers. I’ll give him a choice–he can either have had a ghost position there, or he sucked at his job.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:10 pm:
- Cincinnatus -,
Oh no, the “Fire Madigan” sportswear is for formal gatherings, plus Jack Dorgan needs a break or two, Two-Putt will probably be golfing and never see me or his shirt…
- Ghost - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:16 pm:
=== …run government more like a business…===
SO pay bonuses, paid for training seminars in exotic locals; paid for retreats, club memberships and free restraunts and laundry service for all employees?? Wooohooo!!!
This is how venture capital firms treat their staff; and how companies with 50 billion or more in revenue treat their employees. Can’t wait!
- wordslinger - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:18 pm:
–How did this guy get so rich again? –
Fees from investing public employee pension funds, to a large extent.
Which is more appropriate: “Ironic” or “Chutzpah?”
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:28 pm:
If I wear the Cross Golf Shirt, my Carhartt, flowered shorts and worn flip- flops in animal barns and stalls, will that make me look … Genuine?
Maybe add a Deere hat, brand spanking new, newer than new too?
- Cincinnatus - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:33 pm:
“Maybe add a Deere hat, brand spanking new, newer than new too?”
The well dressed candidate will also iron a crease in it first…
OW FOR GOVERNOR
What the heck, he’s already got the wardrobe.
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:38 pm:
Watch your step, Willy!
- wordslinger - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:44 pm:
–Adlai Stevenson, II held some appointed US government positions before he was elected governor. And he was a good governor.–
Almost didn’t happen.
In 1948, old Col. Arvey thought Truman was a slam-dunk loser and a drag on all Dems, so he wanted a new breed of statewide candidates to perfume the ticket.
(Arvey actually led the unsuccessful Dump Truman movement at the 1948 national convention and desperately tried to get Ike to pursue the Dem nomination).
The original plan was to run Paul Douglas for governor and Stevenson for Senator (Douglas wanted to go for governor, and Stevenson was much more interested in the raging internationalist/isolationist debate on the national stage).
The old party hacks howled over Douglas for governor, as he had been a pain in the tukkus on the Chicago City Council as a Hyde Park Independent. They wanted to exile him to Washington.
So the switch was made. Stevenson beat the incumbent Gov. Dwight Green by a then-record 572,000 votes, Douglas beat the incumbent Sen. Charles Brooks by 407,000 and Truman nipped Dewey in Illinois by 33,000.
As an aside, Douglas is a fascinating character. Hyde Park liberal, University of Chicago economics professor and a Quaker, at the age of 50 he enlisted in the Marines as a private.
Assigned desk duty, he pulled strings with the secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, (owner of the Chicago Daily News and Stevenson’s boss, at the time) to get combat service in the Pacific. Severely wounded at both Peleliu and Okinawa, he spent 13 months in the hospital after the war before getting back into politics.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:49 pm:
- AA -,
I misread the brief, it said “don’t flip-flop”, thought it said ” don’t forget flip-flops”. Flip-flops in the barns, what can go wrong?
- Cincinnatus -,
Don’t forget the $100 belt to hold up the nicely creased shorts, and if they don’t wear flip-flops like me, brand new work boots that they complain about all day, with not a crease in the leather toe, and slick bottoms for concrete. Those are my favorite!
- Ghost - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 2:49 pm:
OW, you need to go wal-mart gear…
Pajama bottoms, flip flops and a t-shirt with the sleeves torn off….
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 3:22 pm:
- Ghost -,
Was that you passing by my house as I was mowing the lawn?
- Mokenavince - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 4:25 pm:
Bruce Rauner has been doing all the right things and he may be a good Governor. The bar has been set rather low. He sounds great on the radio and looks good on TV. I think he’s got a good chance to be elected.
His biggest problem will be the primary election, he doesn’t come off as goofy enough for most primary voters.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 4:37 pm:
- Mokenavince -,
All that glitters is not gold …
When the fraud that is the candidacy that is the Rauner campaign deals with the “insider” label, the Democratic Clouter of his Winnetka living denied daughter to a Chicago magnet school, the tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats, Rahm and Rich Daley for example …
How can a hypocrite like a Rauner win, when Rauner doesn’t even apologize for his hypocricy, including denying a child a chance to a better education, by Bruce Rauner, very specifically, who picked up a phone and called Democrats to Clout his daughter, all the wile railing on Chicago schools and teachers….
Funny thing about thr light of day, it shows it all … including the warts of hypocracy.
- anon - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 4:49 pm:
Remember the so-called management bill–that was the legislation the Governor ‘needed’ in order to run the statebecause there are purportedly too many employees covered by union contracts. Among the employees excluded are legislative liaisions. Yep, the Governor “needs” them alright- he needs them to run his campaign, offere jobs to other politicians so they’ll support him, etc….
- jerry 101 - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 6:39 pm:
“I’m not a politician, I’ve never run for office,” he said. “I didn’t even run for student council in high school.”
Mr. Rauner concluded, “Basically, I have no idea what I’m doing. I hired the very best political hacks to tell me what to do, though.”
- Burning Down da House - Monday, Aug 5, 13 @ 9:18 pm:
You think Jim was one of our best governors? You gotta be kidding…