What Rauner can learn from Quinn
Monday, Jan 12, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
It’s too early to judge Gov. Pat Quinn’s legacy, but two of his accomplishments offer lessons for Bruce Rauner.
Quinn supported the death penalty during his long political career, but when the Illinois General Assembly unexpectedly passed a bill in 2011 to abolish capital punishment, Quinn searched his soul and sought counsel from clergy, activists and others. He finally signed the legislation into law.
That took no small amount of guts. Abolishing the death penalty is fraught with political minefields. One heinous mass murderer who can’t be put to death could spell the end of even a healthy political career—and Quinn’s career never has been terribly healthy.
Governors aren’t faced with dilemmas like this every day. Quinn took his time and wound up putting principle first. Gov.-elect Rauner would do well to remember that example, because his day will come.
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- Babs - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 9:51 am:
Sunday night press conferences are wonderful.
- Arizona Bob - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 9:53 am:
I guess I’m missing something. Quinn’s moral position was that the death penalty was justified, but turned his back on his principles and signed the death penalty prohibition. How exactly is that “putting principle first”?
FYI, I’m against the death penalty because I have no faith in Illinois’ criminal justice system that they can “beyond reasonable doubt” establish guilt nor fairly administer death penalty sentences, and I don’t feel that governments should have the “right” to kill it’s citizens in cold blood.
- Gooner - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 10:16 am:
While the January tax decrease may be bad for Illinois I think it was pretty good politically.
Rauner is going to have to start his term by increasing taxes, and GOP members of the House and Senate are going to have to do the same.
Those votes are going to hurt Republicans much more than they would have hurt Dems, since taxes seem like a much bigger issue for people who vote Republican. Take low taxes away from the GOP, and what do they really have?
The plan built in a political issue for the Dems if they lost in 2014. In some ways, it was brilliant.
- walker - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 10:24 am:
Lesson number one: tell the truth about the fiscal needs of the state.
- Langhorne - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 10:54 am:
Rauner sounds like he is hell bent on hitting state government between the eyes with a 2 X 4, starting this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
We will get insight from his speech, and the first executive orders. I hope he gets it right. We shall see.
- William j Kelly - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 11:19 am:
I am sorry to inform you but the reptilian brain of rauner, although crafty in many many ways, would take millions of years to evolve into anything resembling human behavior.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 11:42 am:
William J Kelly.
Give the man a chance to be Governor.
- Stuff Happens - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 11:50 am:
Looks like he’s taken your advice to heart. Even the inauguration is delayed.
- Levois - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 12:05 pm:
This was a good column. You mention that tax hike and the death penalty. If I recall correctly they did all those things before Quinn and the new General Assembly was inaugurated. So on all these perhaps they did move too fast and at that without considering future consequences. Now we have to fix what they didn’t account for when they proposed these policies.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jan 12, 15 @ 12:08 pm:
You can become governor of Illinois, and you can even get elected governor of Illinois, but that doesn’t make you governor of Illinois among the veteran power players running Illinois.
The veteran power players of Illinois have had to figure out how to run the State without a governor. They had to learn. George Ryan was a lame duck. Rod Blagojevich was a crook. By the time Pat Quinn was sworn in for the first time, he had to prove he wasn’t another Ryan or Blagojevich. Pat Quinn had to show that he could work with the veterans running the show.
Quinn even got elected, and he still didn’t get a chance to sit at the grown-up table. He even put his political career on the line by supporting the veteran’s tax raises, and they still overlooked him.
Pat Quinn tried. However the political veterans running Illinois liked not having a governor around by this time. They liked calling the shots. They kept getting reelected too.
So, if Bruce Rauner thinks getting elected governor of Illinois, makes him governor - he would be making a similar mistake as his previous office holders. His $20 million dollar fund indicates that he is aware that getting elected isn’t enough, and that is good.
Rauner is a solo act. If he doesn’t demonstrate to the veterans of political power in Illinois that he can be a player, then these same veterans who had to do without a governor since 2000, can keep right on doing what they have been.
The Illinois Democrats run the show. Rauner needs to demonstrate that he gets that and figure out how to earn his bones at the same time. Considering how much money he has spent to get elected, and how much money he has spent only to see the Illinois Democrats continue with their veto-proof dominance of the Legislature, Rauner needs to show that he can be smart enough to learn on the job, and smart enough to figure out how to get more than an occasional invite to the table they decide our state’s future upon.
Pat Quinn tried. He really did. That is what the incoming governor needs to learn, in my opinion.
- CrookCounty60827 - Tuesday, Jan 13, 15 @ 7:48 pm:
One innocent person put to death is too many.
As for the rest of Rich’s excellent column, welcome to Illinois politics, Bruce…you weren’t my candidate, but I gotta wish ya luck. Sadly you’re gonna need it.