60 Comments - Try-4-Truth - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:21 am: The mistake that the Jacksonville Courier is making is saying that Unions = Democratic Party. So, if that is true, the converse is true too. The rich and corporate interests = Republican Party. Neither are true. If unions decide that it is in their best interest to participate in the Republican primary, then they are allowed. If Republican primary voters are swayed by a Union message, then that’s their problem. - John A Logan - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:22 am: This idea that someone is hijacking the primary is silly. Politics is a contact sport, this is part of the game, deal with it. - A guy... - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:24 am: Right or wrong the unions are getting some skeptical reception on both sides of the aisle. Casting their lot either direction in a state wide race may be more complicated than it looks. They don’t have a sure fire choice among any of these 5 guys. Even with their resources, I have a sense they won’t get the unwavering support from any direction. That leads to the question: Wouldn’t a clear enemy possibly be more helpful to them in the long run if they want to have some influence? Their chances would be enhanced with a Legislature that was more sympathetic to them than an Executive. It’s a lot easier to exact influence on a finite number of individuals in their case. Just food for thought and one guy’s opinion. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:24 am: ===At some point it becomes less a matter of trying to steer an election and more a case of trying to hijack it.=== And… ===Resorting to schemes that undermine the opportunity of all voters to have an equal voice in the election process is over the line, though, and has potential to harm public sentiment toward unions more than any political candidate could.=== Is this the part where the first lemming jumps off the cliff and the rest follow? If the New Trier Child Clouting, Rahm Emanuel vacationing, Stu Levine hiring, DNC and Ed Rendell “advocating”, Forrest Claypool voting Bruce Rauner continues to believe a “liar” narrative, and “hijacking” theme is going to offset pictures of he and Rahm, and the education process of the real Bruce Rauner, all the way through BOTH elections, then the paranoia is real. The paranoia is festering, and oblivious to his own hypocrisy, or the hubris of being above it all explains the Payton Prep Clouting even more. Pathetic. - Anon - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:24 am: If you could vote in a primary with a reasonable amount of privacy, many of the union members would be voting in the Republican primary. - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:27 am: “case of trying to hijack it” These people need to stop crying. Rauner came out with the hammer, to smash unions. One fist brings out another. “schemes that undermine the opportunity of all voters” Union members aren’t voters too? Folks shouldn’t worry too much. Rauner said he’s impenetrable to unions and voting “schemes.” - Try-4-Truth - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:29 am: Anon - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:24 am: “If you could vote in a primary with a reasonable amount of privacy, many of the union members would be voting in the Republican primary.” WHAT???? So, they would vote for a party that has made it part of their platform to destroy their very way of life. And why, dear Anon, would they do that? Guns? Why? I think you believe that, but I don’t think that you can prove that so please stop. - hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:31 am: So let me get this straight Jacksonville Courier… 1. Unions have no place in the Republican Party coalition at all. 2. Unions donating money to help union-friendlier candidates in a GOP primary is subverting democracy and hijacking democracy. 3. It’s not worth mentioning that this “Republican” they feel is being victimized by those dastardly unions has voted in Democratic Party primaries and donated to Democratic candidates he perceived as more aligned to his interests, thus every bit as “guilty” of “crossing the line” and “hijacking” an election and “undermining the opportunity of all voters to have an equal voice in the election process” as the unions he whines about now. - Carl Nyberg - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:33 am: Unions that failed to advocate for their members should be de-certified. It would be the equivalent of a corporation taking investments and going off and doing something unrelated to making money. If the unions determine Rauner is a risk to the interests of voting members they should act accordingly. Rauner is the kind of wimp who wants to be lauded for taking a “tough” stand but then doesn’t want to do the fighting on behalf of his stand. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:33 am: Are Raunerbots going to then “require”, as part of being allowed to pull a GOP ballot; “are you in a Union?” I guess the question I would raise, and was touched on yesterday; “Bruce Rauner pulled a Democratic ballot to vote, to participate, to hijack the Democratic nomination of Forrest Claypool, the Non-Democratic choice to be the Dem nominee, so I guess if someone knows about “hijacking”, the Dem ballot pulling Bruce Rauner would know quite well. Or is that “baloney” too? Do Carhartts protect lemmings when they jump off cliffs, or do the Carhartts have to be pristine to deflect that much hypocrisy, of does hubris make Rauner numb to being truthful? - Ghost - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:37 am: The guy who blew the caps off of contributions to campaigns is to flood the world with advertising is calling political ads unfair? Antecdotally I know several conservative republican union members who are in the union because it has protected them from how the “liberal” state treats/abuses it’s nonunion employees. So I agree that there are opportunities to support republican union mementos being missed. - chad - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:38 am: Rauner’s cry of foul that unions might subvert or hijack the election with their cash is not credible, especially compared to his own actual subversion of the process using secret payments to individuals. Got my hands on a copy of the Complaint Shearer filed with the State Board of Elections on Rauner’s $558,278.53 of secret payments to unknown individuals. Some interesting tidbits: Rauner did provide salary detail in his first quarterly report, but dropped salary detail starting with the second quarterly report by using an illegal conduit (Paylocity). Instead of a professional treasurer, looks like Rauner selected a couple of buddies. David R. Casper is head of commercial lending at Harris Bank. David Kahnweiler is a commercial real estate broker for Colliers. Kahnweiler failed to sign the 2 reports he was responsible for, and instead used the name of a lapsed treasurer. Maybe they went along with the secret payments or never actually functioned as treasurers. Probably why they both resigned. This just smells fishy, as though there was either knowing intent or a reckless disregard of the law. Political money laundering is actual and illegal subversion of the process. In comparison, the unions are contemplating exercise of free speech – hardly a “subversion” of anything. - Hans Sanity - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:39 am: ===New Trier Child Clouting, Rahm Emanuel vacationing, Stu Levine hiring, DNC and Ed Rendell “advocating”, Forrest Claypool voting Bruce Rauner === A bit long for a bumper sticker, but catchy nonetheless. - Toure's Latte - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:40 am: Meddling in elections is one thing where Illinois actually leads the country, right? Come on GOPers, find something else to be indignant about while wallowing in the mud. - Mouthy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:40 am: If you are a state employee or retiree then in my opinion Rutherford should be your choice regardless of whether you belong to a union or not. - Mason born - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:41 am: Anon Personally I could care less about the Privacy. I am pulling an R ballot despite the Fact my wifes cousin is running for Office in the Dem primary. As i told him when i apologized to him i can’t give up a chance to vote against PQ and Rauner. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:42 am: Rauner crying about money in politics is hilarious. He’s just an average “have-not” private sector guy with no influence on the electoral process. Despite the millions he’s dropped on politicians to make his fortune. - Obama's Puppy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:43 am: Where was the Jacksonville Courier when Aaron Schock was getting bashed? To be consistent then rail against campaign laws, this is the road map that has been laid out before us by the USSC so get used to it. - Try-4-Truth - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:44 am: - Mouthy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:40 am: “If you are a state employee or retiree then in my opinion Rutherford should be your choice regardless of whether you belong to a union or not. ” Why? - Roadiepig - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:46 am: (As I have been saying for some time now)- The newspaper that have spent any time writing about the primary election are in lockstep with Baron’s campaign and his handler’s talking points. Maybe I am being naive, but I can’t remember any other election where they were all so in for one candidate so early in the primary season. Crying foul on the unions for doing what the unions should do ( look out for the best interest of its dues paying members) is silly, but to say that union members have no business voting in a Republican primary is ridiculous. Many long time state employees (and recent retirees) started working under republican governors, and many of those only pull republican ballots EVER primary. To these editorial boards, a union member is just a pseudo-communist who reflexively votes straight democratic. That’s just not true. If things were as black and white as the boards sees things, shouldn’t Rauner be running in the democratic primary ( considering his donating history)? - Wensicia - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:49 am: New rules, if you belong to a union you’re not allowed to vote in the Republican Party primary? Union members have more right to call themselves Republican than Rauner, whose hypocrisy in voting and donating money to Democrats is well documented by others. - AFSCME Steward - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:50 am: So this is saying that the unions are Democratic now & forever ? In fact, the “hijack” is not an attempt to steal the GOP primary so Quinn can win, it is an attempt to support a candidate that can beat quinn. The AFL-CIO endorsed JBT. The last I heard she is GOP all the way. Why was there no outcry about that attempt to meddle with the Republican party by unions ? Actually, many of the unions & the GOP have the same goal, oust Quinn. The Republocrat Rauner is not concerned with the GOP getting the Governorship, he only wants it for himself. Rauner is only GOP now because it is an easier path to the general election not running against an incumbent. “At some point it becomes less a matter of trying to steer an election and more a case of trying to hijack it” - Jorge - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:50 am: Like many have said on here already. Quit crying Rauner and play ball. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. - Norseman - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:51 am: The editors of the Jacksonville Courier appear to have no clue as to what a democracy is. - Who Would You Slam???? - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:53 am: If Rauner was not in the republican primary, who would you slam? This would be a pretty quiet comment page!!!!!! - Try-4-Truth - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:57 am: Who Would You Slam???? - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:53 am: “If Rauner was not in the republican primary, who would you slam? This would be a pretty quiet comment page!!!!!!” Answer - anyone else who acted in a similar fasion. By the way, I think your post is missing just one more thing. I’ll add to it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! There you go. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 9:58 am: We live in strange times. The head of a criminal enterprise, Jamie Dimon, puts the Justice Department on overtime assessing fines against his racket (no crimes, please; lets be civil), but he gets a raise and cocktails with the president. A cheap pay-to-play hustler like Rauner makes his fortune off pension money and uses it to feed his ego demonizing working stiffs, bragging about how he wants to take their retirement. Who crashed the economy in 2008? Was it the reckless greedheads like Dimon and Rauner, or was it the teachers and the cops? If you can’t spot the chump the first time the deal goes round, you’re it. - Mr. B.A. - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:01 am: Mouthy 9:40 - I am in full agreement. Why? Because Rutherford was the only realist candidate that knows the new pension law won’t fly ( and said so from the beginning… Unlike Dillard). Teachers in my neck of the woods are fully behind DR. My only wish is the KD would drop out of the race to give Dan a better shot. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:02 am: - Who Would You Slam -, You must be a new Raunerbot. Stick around, usually they all get a chance to be Dopey and in the barrel. “Bruce Rauner” refuses to answer for Bruce Rauner. That’s his punishment. - Hans Sanity -, AWillyWord Con$sulting will start thinking more bumper sticker. Hat tip to - Samauri - and others for the laundry list the last few days too. - hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:03 am: Does the martyr complex ever end for the Rauner-bots? Good grief. - Try-4-Truth - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:07 am: Rauner is reminding me more and more every day of Blair Hull. Remember when Hull had to answer for supporting George Ryan? He said it was because of abortion. The drip drip drip of negative stories about him, and then the “big one” between he and his wife. We’ll see how this plays out (I don’t think that there’s a Barak Obama in the Republican primary this year to hold off Rauner, like the Dem. primary in 2004). As an non Republican primary voter, this could be fun to watch. - MrJM - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:09 am: The Journal Courier’s assertion that voting can “hi-jack” an election demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of electoral politics. – MrJM - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:10 am: The Operating Engineers are backing Shearer’s efforts. I’m pretty sure that Shearer and the Operating Engineers have been GOP way longer than Rauner. The Jacksonville edit is ignorant and embarrassing. - Walter Mitty - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:11 am: “Resorting to schemes that undermine the opportunity of all voters to have an equal voice in the election process is over the line, though, and has potential to harm public sentiment toward unions more than any political candidate could.” This was the interesting part… Real or perceived… It must poll well to set up the narrative in the general for Rauner. I give kudos to Rutherford to not take the bait… The blow back on the unions must be why the teachers for one are silent… - DuPage - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:19 am: …”schemes that undermine the opportunity of all voters to have an equal voice in the election process”… When it comes right down to it on election day, Rauner’s vote will count one vote, the same as the minimum wage worker in the fast food job sector. That part is equal. Spending on TV ads is something else entirely. - walker - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:23 am: @Who Would You Slam? Playing “The Victim” doesn’t attract many votes, except at Oscar time. Apparent hypocrisy by any candidate gets slammed on this site. Rauner just seems to dominate the category right now. - mythoughtis - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:24 am: ==If you could vote in a primary with a reasonable amount of privacy, many of the union members would be voting in the Republican primary. == This argument gets ignored the farther away you are from Springfield. Until I moved to Sanamon County, I had never even met the precinct committee person in my area for either party. I vote for the person not the party, and I have requested the opposite partys’ primary ballot on occasion in order to do so. And many union members are already shown as voting in the Republican primary. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:29 am: ===Resorting to schemes that undermine the opportunity of all voters to have an equal voice in the election process is over the line…=== I would think not allowing someone to decide how they vote, what primary they want to vote in, and how they vote must be cast seems a little more subversive to a secret ballot voting system called democracy. “You can vote, but we at the Jacksonville Courier will tell you what ballots are permissible, depending how we at the paper think you should be pigeon-holed to be a good lemming and/or Raunerbot, or even a subversive Union member bent on destroying the paper’s vision of democracy.” When you “must” vote as you are told and not as you believe, democracy fails. - Hans Sanity - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:32 am: Thankfully, Sen. Dillard was on Decauter radio this morning talking Rauner nursing homes. Maybe he can get more play north of I-80. Don’t want to slam him or Lt. Gov candidate Tracy, but watch out for “The Repealer” talk. Imagine if a repealer type program had its ears on Rauner’s mouth. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:36 am: So - if Daley had stayed in the race and business interests started backing him big-time in the Democratic primary, as they would have, would the Jacksonville Courier have viewed that as “hijacking” that primary? - Downstate - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:39 am: Careful what you wish for - a crossover voting confession. In 1992, I had a friend running in the Democratic Primary. So, for the first (and only) time, I drew a D ballot. While in the booth, I thought I would express my displeasure with Senator Alan Dixon by voting for one of his opponents. Much to my dismay, I ended up voting for the upset primary (and general) election winner - Senator Carol Moseley Braun. UGH. - Anon - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:42 am: In 2008, Rush Limbaugh spent months urging his Republican listeners in states with open primaries to raid the Democratic presidential primaries to vote for Clinton in an effort has dubbed “Operation Chaos.” If it was just good politics when Rush and the GOP did it, then Republicans have no business complaining this year if some union members pull a rare GOP ballot. - Veritas - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 10:42 am: Now let me see: the GOP has been losing elections because there are more registered Dems and the unions have more members in Illinois than Republicans who voted in the last primary - and the GOP has been branded as the party of the 1%. Follow me here because Lewis Carroll couldn’t have made this up: we have a Gazillionaire candidate who has voted in a Dem primary and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates who is telling us that Dems and union members shouldn’t be allowed to vote in the GOP primary!! - langhorne - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:12 am: rauner is the classic bully on the playground. threats to smash things, shake things up, call people corrupt, big bad unions and union bosses who pull the strings, part of the problem, etc ad nauseum. but the unions are just rumored to be coming out with ads (cant wait) and rauner is crying foul, and wanting his opponents to protect him, before a glove has been landed on him. thats rich. oops, poor choice of word. - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:14 am: Speaking of unions, they lost a friend today. RIP Pete Seeger. - D.P.Gumby - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:18 am: Gosh, they just missed a great opportunity to call for overturning Citizen’s United if they are concerned about all this money in political campaigns, esp. from outside groups who might be running negative ads. - veritas - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:30 am: There is a finite amount of space on the front page of a newspaper. If you want to put something new on - you have to take something off. Rauner wants to shift the focus away from his dubious business dealings, associations and Democratic contributions and I would too, if I were him. But to have the press make an issue out of something that is LEGAL is really stretching it. Shame on the press, but when was the last time that they were relevant?? - langhorne - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:33 am: seems really funny that the tough guy in the carhartt jacket, who is the impenetrable outsider spfld hasnt seen before, ready to smash and hammer things, is quaking in his boots at the thought the unions might say mean things about him. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:41 am: –Speaking of unions, they lost a friend today. RIP Pete Seeger. – What a bad ass. Never backed down. Did some amazing stuff with the great Burl Ives, straight out of Charleston. He was so strong, I can even forgive him for taking an ax to Dylan’s power cord when he went electric at Newport, lol. Here’s a treat for the haters. Pete and The Boss at the Lincoln Memorial for you-know-who. Like the man said, turn it up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrbPGHSAAAA - veritas - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:44 am: Illinois has always been a 2 party state and I don’t see that changing. There are other things that bond us together and that we share in our statewide DNA: we don’t like B.S. artists - we don’t like people who can dish it out, but not take it and we don’t like hypocrites. Try another state Bruce. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 11:46 am: How quickly we forget: === Maher said about 49 percent of the engineer union’s roughly 16,000 Illinois members pulled Republican ballots in the 2010 primary, so the organization has a duty to get involved. === www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/illinois-unions-prepare-attack-on-gop-s-rauner/article_0737872c-03d4-5e99-80bd-0da5f45acc89.html - Nieva - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 12:19 pm: If you think for a minute that the union bosses can make a call and get hard core democrats to pull a republican ballot you dreaming. Doing that keeps you from voting democrat in the spring caucus. That would cause them to lose control of all the township jobs that they love. - Joan P. - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 12:30 pm: @ DuPage: “When it comes right down to it on election day, Rauner’s vote will count one vote, the same as the minimum wage worker in the fast food job sector. ” It wouldn’t surprise me if Rauner believed that we should go back to days when only owners of real property could vote. And he’d probably make that one vote for every house you own. - Chavez-respecting Obamist - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 12:40 pm: If they don’t want me voting in their primary, they need to change the law that says I can pull whichever ballot I want. - Arizona Bob - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 12:55 pm: When I was campaigning door to door in 2012, I was amazed by the number of union members who were ready to voe Republican. They saw the Union leadership that prohibited them from working other union jobs after forced, non-public union jobs as more of enemies than friends. I met union construction workers who hadn’t worked a full month for years prohibited from plying their trade at less than union scale despite the fact that the union was doing nothing to get low seniority members union work. Of course, there were many brain addled union advocates who’d vote for the Dem candidate regaradless of how much they’d continue to devastate the state with their policies and corruption. Those hurt by union’s tyrany in Illinois, and that’s a large number, are fodder for GOP campaigning, as are those public employees who are seeing how Dem mismanagement, crony capitalism and corruption is destroying economic opportunity in Illinois. The simple fact is that we have the elected officals we deserve in Illinois, and the fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves. - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 1:19 pm: - Joan P. - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 12:30 pm: It wouldn’t surprise me if Rauner believed that we should go back to days when only owners of real property could vote. +++++++ That would give him nine votes spread out over a few states, yes? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 1:25 pm: - Arizona Bob -, This is fun.., “union members…Union leadership…union jobs after forced, non-public union jobs …enemies…I met union construction workers who hadn’t worked a full month for from plying their trade at less than union scale…union was doing nothing to get low seniority members union work. Of course, there were many brain addled union advocate…Dem candidate regaradless …continue to devastate the state …policies and corruption…hurt by union’s tyrany in Illinois…GOP campaigning…public employees… Dem mismanagement,… crony capitalism.., corruption…destroying economic opportunity…Illinois. The simple fact…elected officals we deserve…Illinois, and the fault…ourselves.” Talking points are fun. - Jorge - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 2:03 pm: Arizona Bob, thanks for the laugh. I needed demagoguery to remind me why the GOP can’t win at this point in time. I wish you would have actually listened to Jindal’s advice. - low level - Tuesday, Jan 28, 14 @ 7:06 pm: Is this paper trying to become the downstate equivalent of the conspiracy minded, crackpot Chicago Tribune??? - steam showers for sale - Wednesday, Feb 5, 14 @ 2:20 am: Fantastic website plenty of fabulous steam shower knowledge here Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.