58 Comments - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:21 am: ===…how are you gonna do that when you slash the income tax rate while also promising to increase school funding, etc.?=== Well, by freezing property taxes … The man on the stump is clueless to governing. It is scary to think what it will be like when Rauner learns all these “quick fixes” and grand plans literally can’t be accomplished, and further, are economically crippling, even more than where the state currently is. - OneMan - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:21 am: I heard once that DNR would be fine if they could just keep everything they collected (licenses and the like) wonder if that is true? - wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:21 am: That’s going to be a heavy load taking on responsibility for the national forests and waterways. Talk about phoning in flippant, meaningless talking points. - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:22 am: If Evelyn can talk to the trees like she talks to men, her magic will fix it! - AlabamaShake - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:23 am: So what’s with the auto-play videos this week? Anyway those can be turned off? - Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:26 am: ==But how are you gonna do that when you slash the income tax rate while also promising to increase school funding, etc.?== If I were a reporter I would ask this question over and over and over. For somebody who’s touted as a successful businessman, he sure doesn’t have a clue about budgets. - admin - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:27 am: It doesn’t matter if it makes sense. You are the only one calling him on it, Rich. So where is the rest of Rauner’s plan to shake up springfield? to date no real plan pieces of a plan. Is trib going to endorse him without a real plan? - Frenchie Mendoza - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:30 am: I take this as proof (to me, at least — although I knew it at least a year ago) that Rauner is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is. I’m guessing his comment about not wanting to explain the ins-and-outs of equity investing to the ordinary “working joe” has less to do with Rauner’s hubris and condescension and more to do with the fact that Rauner himself has no idea how it’s done. The debates will be brutal. Rauner will be trounced. The other issue — and something I’ve noticed for a while now — is that he’s not a quick thinker, either. You can see it on the video. He smiles, and it’s clear from his nervous eyes that he’s thinking, processing, attempting to clarify the cacophony of campaign directives and talking points floating around in his head. - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:31 am: ==- Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:26 am:== It doesn’t have to make sense when you’re just a salesman, all you have to do is sell and market, sell and market. Now if you’re an analyst… ==- admin - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:27 am:== “Is trib going to endorse him without a real plan?” Yes. Par for the course at the nuthouse on Michigan Avenue. - Peoria guy - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:40 am: Rauner does not have a clue how to govern. He has a couple of things going for him though—he has a ton of money and is running against an unpopular governor. He may just get elected and then be a total mess as governor. I say that as an embarrassed Republican. - tsavo - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:42 am: http://www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/pso/article/dnr_facing_trouble_with_federal_funds OneMan, This may be the “sweeping funds” incident concerning DNR you heard about. - Concerned - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:42 am: Remember, he is just the salesman. When the magic doesn’t occur and things get tough, he will do as he did when one of the businesses he invested in goes south. He’ll walk away and blame others. Because everything he does is successful! Riiiiight. - ZC - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:42 am: Hmm, I wonder if there’s been a study, if private equity first-time candidates do somewhat better than the (generally dismal) average of businessmen running for office. He’s doing I imagine what he did in the private sector: promise amazing returns if he was allowed to acquire a company, blah blah blah, say anything to secure the deal, and then figure out what to do afterwards, after he could “open the books” and look around more. It’s a very applicable skill to running for public office. Governing afterwards, maybe not so much. - Gooner - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:44 am: Come on, this is easy. If you cut a few Democrat patronage workers off bloated payrolls, and reduce taxes, there will be more than enough money to increase education funding and to fund both our state and any federal parks around here. It is simple, especially if your Lt. Gov can do magic. Just ask anybody on the right. They will tell you all about it. Unfortunately though, it is not just the far right. Seems like a lot of people in IL are more than willing to accept “this is going to be easy” as the answer, and Rauner has no problem feeding them that line. You have to give Rauner credit. While he may not understand the basics of how IL govt functions, he certainly understands IL voters. - facts are stubborn things - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:44 am: vote for me, I will lower your taxes and increase spending. The problem is this works, that is why they do it. - Soccermom - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:46 am: Gosh, if Bruce doesn’t understand the difference between state and federal government, what is life going to be like when he hears about townships, counties, cities, towns, villages and districts? - Sunshine - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:49 am: Sounds to me like Rauner is making strong inroads, gaining even more ground, and will likely be our next governor. How dare that fellow use all the legal means to make money. How dare he seek what is best for those investing in him. What kind of person is he?….perhaps a capitalist? Maybe it’s time we had someone who can’t govern….might be just what we need if our most recent governors are any proof? Whatever it he is doing on the campaign trail, he should keep it up. His “team” is doing a great job so far. - Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:51 am: @Sunshine: He is doing good right now. Problem is he will eventually have to govern. He has yet to show me that he is capable of doing so. The biggest failure I see in him so far is his complete lack of understanding of the budget. - Sunshine - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:55 am: D are you suggesting he and Quinn are two peas in a pod? From Quinn’s performance I think he too lacks budget sense. - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:55 am: ==- Concerned - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:42 am:== Maybe the Palin model? Quit 60% of the way through. ==- Sunshine - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:49 am:== “Legal”? How about that growing list of massive frauds and bust outs? Are you just wishing that away with Evelyn’s magic? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:55 am: ===Maybe it’s time we had someone who can’t govern…=== I have to remind myself, “Respect the voters” However, ===Maybe it’s time we had someone who can’t govern…=== is probably the Dopiest reason to support anyone. You can’t claim your candidate can’t govern, and we need that right now, and have your case seem sane. Sorry. - Perry Noya - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:56 am: “He smiles, and it’s clear from his nervous eyes that he’s thinking, processing, attempting to clarify the cacophony of campaign directives and talking points floating around in his head.” Frenchie, you have nailed Rauner with this insight. He does what his handlers tell him to do, but he obviously lacks political wits. Re the Trib endorsement–does anyone care any more whom the Trib does or does not endorse? - Langhorne - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:57 am: Say anything. Promise anything. Whatever that particular audience wants to hear, thats the song on the juke box. Details be damned. - Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:58 am: ==D are you suggesting he and Quinn are two peas in a pod?== I don’t like either candidate. Let me put that out there before I respond. I think Quinn has a far better grasp that Rauner. Quinn at least had the guts to say that the current tax rates need to be extended or made permanent. Rauner doesn’t seem to have a grasp on the budget, which was made glaringly apparent by the budget “plan” he released, which was a complete sham. I might consider Rauner if he could convince me he wouldn’t make the budget situation worse. From what I’ve seen he would make the situation far worse. - zatoichi - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 9:58 am: “we need to enhance our natural resources so families can enjoy them”. Great idea, terrific sales pitch, could not agree more, but this is not a unilateral operation. The members of the GA kinda have some say in budget development/funding and they cannot be fired, closed, sold off or outsourced. Comes back to: What’s the Plan? - Skeptic - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:05 am: More of the same. Remember a week or two ago he was going to create jobs by improving Illinois’ water ways (which are maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers) and railroads (which are owned by the railroads)? Now he wants to maintain National forests. Maybe he’s planning a mega-merger? That’s about the only explanation that makes sense. - downstate hack - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:07 am: Say anything. Promise anything. Whatever that particular audience wants to hear, thats the song on the juke box. Sounds like Quinn in 2010. - lovecraft - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:08 am: Rauner will be our next governor, he will be a disaster, the vast majority of people in Illinois will suffer, and after 4 years he will ride off into the sunset, convinced he did a good job. - CampfireGirl - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:12 am: Most posters on this topic think too much. They analyze too much. The voters are going to elect Rauner because he is selling the sizzle - and that is what a good salesman does. Having the money to market the sizzle does not hurt either. At the end of the day Rauner wins the Governorship because voters are hungry for even the promise of some sizzle, and the are not going to even remember 4 years down the road what the actual steak tasted like. - Jorge - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:14 am: Maybe the baron will just pay for it all himself. - DuPage - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:14 am: Rauner strategy, “promise them anything, say what they want to hear, there is a sucker born every minute”. - dupage dan - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:14 am: This is vision stuff. It looks good in a sound bite. Standard operating procedure. Moving along. Unless you’all think Rauner’s the only one who has ever, is now, or will - in the future - spout this kind of nonsense, you are daffy (snark). However, I understand that since Rauner claims to be an outsider - altogether different from your usual candidate (yeah, like we’ve never heard THAT before) you can jump on this as contradictory. Of course, that is completely true. Again, these are set pieces. The candidate positions himself depending on what the research shows is most advantageous - either outsider immune to undue influence or insider who can deliver the pork. The message is crafted to push the point. Media buzz is managed - it happens every cycle. Learned folks here appropriately, and predictably, lambast the hypocrisy while lamenting the absence of talent in the various races. Unfortunately, there are few shining stars as candidates (read JBT & OW) who we can point to as paradigms of political virtue (if such even exists). Onward to the general election! Too bad Pat Paulsen died, I’d've voted for him rather than the pork supplier or craven outsider. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:17 am: The term “magic fairy dust” has been used here a few times to describe some of the language being used. Seems appropriate. - Peoria guy - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:24 am: Yeah, for a financial genius he sure doesn’t seem to have a handle on numbers. Or he is just lying. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:32 am: ===At the end of the day Rauner wins the Governorship because voters are hungry for even the promise of some sizzle, and the are not going to even remember 4 years down the road what the actual steak tasted like.=== Rauner will need to deliver. It’s his schtick. In four years, if … Term limits Property taxes frozen, statewide Fair maps passed Pension crisis fixed with 401Ks Unions broken, state shut down Education funding increases And… Budget balanced… You don’t deliver, it will be a tougher re-elect than Quinn is facing now, because a Raunerite base will not be pleased with the governing of Bruce Rauner. - dupage dan -, while I, honestly, appreciate to be in the category of Comptroller Topinka, her stellar record and service, I can’t even hold a candle to her. She actually is doing the People’s business. Thank you for a thoughtful comparison. Willy is spelled with two “L”s and a “Y” when writing me in, if you feel so inclined. - Langhorne - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:36 am: Maybe the state can finance a couple resorts, to get things moving. What? We already tried that? Howd it work out? - Norseman - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:36 am: === I think Quinn has a far better grasp that Rauner. === Raunervich has a good grasp of things. However, he’s willing to say whatever and do whatever it takes to win the prize. As someone mentioned earlier he’ll just blame someone else for the problems he’ll cause. - Sparky - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:40 am: Really depressing. Both of these jokers will say anything to please whatever audience they are talking to. Don’t even care if it is true or not. They just want elected. Sad and we wonder why voter apathy is what it is. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 10:47 am: The state could definitely do a better job promoting its natural getaway sites — Southern Illinois, Mississippi River, Galena, Starved Rock, etc. — in the most obvious and potentially lucrative market, which is Chicago and suburbs. Wisconsin and Michigan are all over Chicago TV and billboards, always, promoting getaways in the great outdoors. Nada for Illinois. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:01 am: classic hoof and mouth, keep talking - Skeptic - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:02 am: “The state could definitely do a better job promoting its natural getaway sites” and historic sites too (or at least the ones whose names don’t start with Abraham that is.) - olddog - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:37 am: === … he’ll just blame someone else for the problems he’ll cause. === Yep. Probably teachers and union bosses. - Arizona Bob - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:38 am: No Illinois candidate ever lost an election by underestimating the intelligence of the typical Illinois voter. MJM and Quinn told voters that their massive, job killing 67% income tax increase would be “temporary” and would pay all our overdue bills. The mentally challenged Illinois voters re-elected those who increased the taxes, and actually increased their margins to veto proof levels. The pols now are moving to keep the tax permanent after refusing to end the wasteful pork spending and enact serious pension and educational funding reform.That bill backlog has just been dented, not made current. The GA and Guv had other “plans” for that money. Despite being cheated and lied to, they’ll probably re-elect those clowns again. Obama promised you can “keep your doctor”, “keep your insurance”, and promised that he would decrease health insurance costs to taxpayers and the insured by $2500 each. He lied. Illinois voters re-elected him by huge margins. So now Rauner is claiming he can cut taxes while increasing education funding, but won’t say where he’ll cut. Voting for that kind of deal makes as much sense as re-electing Dems in the GA, Quinn, and Obama after their deceptions and failures. Rauner may not be an experienced candidate, but he sure knows his Illinois voter history. He knows how they think, and he gives them what they WANT to hear instead of what they NEED to hear. He’s got a bright future in Illinois politics. - Tim Snopes - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:38 am: “I couldn’t agree more. But how are you gonna do that when you slash the income tax rate while also promising to increase school funding, etc.?” By squeezing nursing homes and Obamacare patients and running them like a vulture capital bidness? - CircularFiringSquad - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:41 am: Those CaymanCuties traveling on the bus must have Mitt Rauner plum tuckered out. Could Mitt have just revealed that he is running to be a General in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Can we also agree that Mitt’s current position it vote to raise the income tax rate from where it will be on 1-1-15 to a HIGHER rate and impose $600 million in higher sales taxes. - Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:45 am: ==The mentally challenged Illinois voters == So basically @Arizona Bob, anybody that doesn’t buy into your schtick is unintelligent. Got it. I’ll speak for all Illinois voters and just say bite us. ==MJM and Quinn told voters that their massive, job killing 67% income tax increase would be “temporary” and would pay all our overdue bills. Well, that’s not what they said, but whatever. And if you think the budget is bad now, try going back and not passing the tax hike and see where the budget would be today. Not pretty. ==The pols now are moving to keep the tax permanent after refusing to end the wasteful pork spending and enact serious pension and educational funding reform.== Well, Bob, in case you’ve been living under a rock I believe they passed a pension “reform” bill. Probably an unconstitutional one but they passed one. I’d love to hear your ideas on what real pension reform is - mind you it has to be constitutional. And we all know educational funding reform for you means cutting teacher salaries. Gee Bob, for somebody that doesn’t even live here anymore and has a real disdain and hatred for the state you sure seem to comment a lot about it. - Gooner - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:48 am: Bob, That jobs killer sure is driving unemployment down. If it is designed as a jobs-killer, it is the worst job killer ever. And Bob, if you want to ramble on with standard national talking points, please do it elsewhere. The comments here have always been devoid of that sort of thing. We like it that way. - Stones - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:52 am: It sort of reminds me of a old favorite movie “The Candidate”. The last line of the movie is brilliant once he is elected…”What do we do now?” - Downstate Illinois - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:55 am: Rauner’s right on DNR and the Shawnee National Forest. We haven’t had a governor in a long time who cared. Blago went out of his way to avoid state parks and Quinn’s only continued the budget cutting and patronage hiring. Money goes a long way to fixing what’s wrong in DNR and IHPA, but leadership and flexibility are needed even more. That requires executive action. Working with the feds in their agencies is also key. Currently we have a state quarter coming out soon showing Camel Rock, but the forest service leadership is banning tour buses at Garden of the Gods if they don’t have a permit, which takes months to get. There are solutions, but it would take someone actually working to them to see them through. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:56 am: == Quinn told voters that their massive, job killing 67% income tax increase would be “temporary” == A slight correction, @Arizona Bob. Mr. Quinn actually told us it would be a temporary 33% “education surcharge”. They didn’t even wait for the new term to begin before that promise was broken. - Soccermom - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 12:16 pm: Word — you need to be a little careful with your state tourism ads. We saw one for Missouri last night… - WAK - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 12:38 pm: I’m surprised there has been no discussion about how Quinn has been a very strong advocate for IDNR. For years IDNR was treated as one of the low priority agencies to cut and sweep fees from in order to balance the budget, Quinn promised to stop the bleeding and has been a strong supporter and advocate for DNR, downstaters and outdoorsmen give him little credit for his continued and passionate support of DNR. Rauner on the other hand will have to cut DNR to make his budget magic work, leaving state parks and wildlife preserves and the downstate communities that depend on them in the same sorry state Rauner’s equity firm left a number nursing homes. - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 12:42 pm: ==- Arizona Bob - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 11:38 am:== Go away and never come back. You are despicable. - Roadiepig - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 1:51 pm: You all need to give Arizona Bob a break- he has to have something to do (write his national talking points posts here at Cap Fax) while he sits on hold, waiting for the call screener to let him make comments on Rush’s radio program… - walker - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 2:24 pm: Arizona Bob: Stay around. We mostly know which of your points carry some real substance, and which are mostly just spouting off hot air. We enjoy a little of both. Amazing how folks can rewrite history, and claim that politicians said something they just didn’t — or make political use of just one damaging piece and pretend it wasn’t part of a larger message. Example 1 is that the Lottery was not initially sold by anyone, to anyone, as a funder of education. That myth was created by political opponents after the fact, as a great way to point out how promises had been broken. A similar rewrite is now occurring with the tax increase. The full message with which Quinn sold the tax increase, was that it would help us meet our full ramped-up pension obligations, and keep the government running, and help prevent larger-than-planned cuts in funding for human services and education, and reduce our outstanding overdue bills, while keeping our credit rating from going immediately (2010) into the tank. It was also one part of a larger package leading to fiscal health in the medium term, including firm spending ceilings, debt restructure, and pension reforms, all of which were formally proposed, but which have died or fallen short for various reasons. - NewWestSuburbanGOP'er - Tuesday, Aug 19, 14 @ 2:39 pm: I couldn’t agree more. But how are you gonna do that when you slash the income tax rate while also promising to increase school funding, etc.? Hello mainstream media…..why aren’t you asking the questions? - Arizona Bob - Wednesday, Aug 20, 14 @ 8:24 am: @ Gooner =That jobs killer sure is driving unemployment down. If it is designed as a jobs-killer, it is the worst job killer ever.= Look at the unemployment and participation rates before and after the tax increase. Pretty clear correlation and causation there. We’ve lost 4200 jobs while virtually all our neighbors have increased employment, sometimes dramatically. Learn to read graphs and data, Gooner. - Arizona Bob - Wednesday, Aug 20, 14 @ 8:29 am: @PC =Go away and never come back. You are despicable.= Game, set and match. If my posts were nonsensical and invalid, you’d just ignore me. When a hack clearly can’t debate the point and has lost, they try to intimidate and bully the winner off the field. Go back to knocking on doors and trying to intimidate voters into voting for the hacks you support, PC. Nobody in this “playground” is afraid of your bullying. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.