Because… Ricketts!
Tuesday, Feb 23, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Um, dude, they own the Chicago Cubs. That’s probably the worst imaginable thing that anybody would ever try to hide. But, as we all know, they were quite public about their purchase of that evil monstrosity. So, I’m not sure how anything else in their collective family past could possibly be any worse than that…
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday to denounce a super political action committee opposing his campaign that’s primarily funded by Marlene Ricketts, whose family owns the Chicago Cubs.
“I hear the Rickets (sic) family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $’s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!” wrote Trump, the businessman and reality TV show star who is no stranger to making pronouncements, name-calling denunciations and predictions via social media.
Trump’s message apparently was in response to a USA Today story noting that Ricketts, the family matriarch who lives in Nebraska, had put $3 million into the Our Principles PAC in January. The PAC has spent about $3.5 million in ads, mailings and other efforts to oppose Trump, federal records show.
* Gov. Rauner and Leader Durkin refused to respond. But one guy did…
But, will Trump’s Twitter strategy work in Illinois? Former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady thinks not.
“It does stir it up and he sucks all the oxygen in the room and other candidates can’t get out there, but I don’t think it’s going to work very well here,” Brady said.
Yeah, OK.
* From a Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll…
If the Republican primary for president were held today, would you vote for Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, or Donald Trump?
Donald Trump 28%
Ted Cruz 15%
Marco Rubio 14%
John Kasich 13%
Jeb Bush 8%
Ben Carson 6%
Someone else (not read) 1%
Other/Don’t know (not read) 15%
* It’s obviously dated, the sample size was small and the poll was taken over several days…
The sample of 306 [Illinois] Republicans was part of a statewide poll of 1,000 registered voters conducted Feb.15 to 20. The GOP voter sample has a margin of error of 5.6 percent.
But I doubt that Trump has suddenly fallen behind in Illinois. As we’ve already clearly seen, a large number of Illinoisans absolutely love it when their guy is constantly on the attack. And Pat Brady ought to know this because he’s been loudly cheering something eerily similar to this in his own back yard for a while now.
Just sayin…
- LizPhairTax - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:13 am:
It’s the same playbook with a different bogeyman. Rich guy, no specifics, taps into anger and fear. It’s small school high school football. Plays don’t have to be fancy, they just have to work.
Billionaire fight!
- Boone's is Back - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:14 am:
The ire of Donald Trump knows no bounds. Just ask Rosie O’Donnell or THE POPE.
- Hedley Lamarr - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:17 am:
Anyone who supports Rauner will support Trump. They’re two peas in a pod.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:18 am:
I found Mr. Ricketts (Tom) a very nice man and I cherish my picture with him!
To the Post,
My bud, Pat Brady, is using selective memory here. I’m sure now, Mr. Brady will change his ways(?)
Also, a son that’s a Governor, another heading up the family ownership of the Cubs… if Trump wavts to say something, say it. Otherwise, move on.
Opening Day is fast approaching…
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:20 am:
–“It does stir it up and he sucks all the oxygen in the room and other candidates can’t get out there, but I don’t think it’s going to work very well here,” Brady said.–
Another whistler past the graveyard.
I used to think that Trump was just in it for the attention. I couldn’t believe that he actually wanted the gig, which is brutal.
The adoring crowds are gone very quickly, then you’re just left with awful decisions that can go either way, and often involve body counts.
But he ain’t going away anytime soon. And anyone who gets a major party nomination has at least a puncher’s chance for the Big Job. And he’s well on his way to a major party nomination.
- Stones - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:22 am:
Perhaps the oddest Presidential election I have ever seen….on both sides.
- Wow - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:23 am:
Rauner, Trump, what a worrisome daily double for any Republican on the ticket in November.
- Old Shepherd - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:25 am:
A couple of years ago, many people were saying that someone like Bruce Rauner could never get elected Governor of Illinois. Now, people are saying that there’s no way someone like Donald Trump can get elected President of the United States.
This is very, very scary.
- @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:26 am:
I think what Pat Brady meant to say was “It Can’t Happen Here”
– MrJM
- Norseman - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:28 am:
IMHO the following quote sums up what’s going on this year:
“George C. Edwards III, a distinguished professor of political science at Texas A&M, said Bush had another unique problem this election season: The Republican Party.
‘Jeb Bush is interested in governing to solve national problems,’ Edwards said. ‘The Republican party’s primary electorate is not. Governing requires inclusiveness, substance, and nuance. Success with the Republican electorate seems to require anti-governing stances, simple answers, and a restricted view of coalitions.’”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/02/21/jeb-bush-donald-trump-republicans-2016/80702192/
- SAP - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:31 am:
==I used to think that Trump was just in it for the attention. I couldn’t believe that he actually wanted the gig, which is brutal.== I still think Trump is in it for the attention. I think he is the dog that caught the car and doesn’t know what to do with it.
- Stones - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:32 am:
Let’s not forget that Jessie Ventura was once elected Governor of Minnesota &
Arnold Schwarzenegger Governor of California. Heck, Ronald Reagan was a celebrity actor before he was elected Governor of California. Anymore it seems that money and celebrity matter more than qualifications or positions on issues.
- wayward - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:32 am:
This may turn me into a Cubs fan.
- Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:35 am:
Can you imagine the conversation between a President Trump and Gov. Rauner if the feds refused to declare something a disaster area in Illinois.
Trump: You are weak and need to just suck it up and spend your own dollars on this.
Rauner: Well you are a crook that is Mike Madigan’s best friend.
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:36 am:
The silence from Rauner will be interesting when Trump starts stumpin’ some more in Illinois. Wonder if Trump will trumpet on Rauner’s governance???
- Anonymouth - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:46 am:
Trump would be a nightmare for Rauner and the Republicans. If there is one candidate that will bring democrats out in droves in November it will be Trump.
- Huh? - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:48 am:
I will laugh myself silly if Trump goes after 1.4%. What will be especially funny is that what ever Trump says will unfortunately be true. 1.4% is a terrible governor.
- Generation X - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:48 am:
Don’t kid yourself, there are a lot of disaffected Dems supporting Trump too.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:48 am:
Look at the bright side, Rauner may leave Illinois to be His Majesty’s running mate
- DuPage Bard - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:50 am:
Rauner will not bite that dog. The Donald has infinite more resources than Bruce and seems to have a better messaging team. His use of social media is crushing others. I get e-mails everyday sometimes twice from multiple candidates but all they ever do is ask for money. Donald has seen Bruce’s playbook, the path to victory was laid out here in Illinois. Donald is richer, better on the mic and has a big giant personality. Like him or not people are gravitating towards him.
- Merica - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:50 am:
There are a lot of misconceptions about Trump. Listen to his profile on NPR yesterday and the interview of Al Sharpton, who calls Trump the “white Don King.” Trump went to military schools where he learned to compete very aggressively. He is a self promoter who really thinks he can make America great again. What is good about him is that he is not an ideologue. He and Rauner have nothing in common, they are enemies. Rauner gives millions to “libertarian” think tanks. Trump represents a danger to Rauners entire business model, Trump is against free trade and illegal immigration. Trump is against super PACs. Also Trumps fortune is btw $5-12 B, Rauner is $500M, Trump doesn’t consider them in the same class.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:54 am:
The national GOP establishment has been caught in quite the quagmire. What do they do after Trump is the nominee?! Because at this point, that is a foregone conclusion. He would have to get his clock cleaned on “Super Tuesday” to lose the nomination. RNC officials would have to write Illinois off as a loss at the Presidential, Senatorial and Congressional levels, but other states would be in play and would require plenty of efforts and resources.
How could they not have seen this coming? Nominating a past-his-prime John McCain and a milquetoast (albeit tanned milquetoast) Mitt Romney certainly made the future less certain.
- Blago's Luxurious Grey Mane - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:54 am:
When will Pat Brady stop “helping”?
- @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:55 am:
“there are a lot of disaffected Dems supporting Trump too”
A lot?
According to Gallup, Trump has “a net favorable rating of -70 among Democrats and -27 among independents, by far the most negative of any candidate.” http://www.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/188177/trump-image-among-democrats-independents-negative-gop-candidate.aspx
– MrJM
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:57 am:
Mane - thank you! I like Pat Brady as a person, but he was a horrible chairman.
- Generation X - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 10:58 am:
I’m not sure how Illinois plays out exactly in Presidential election. Trump has a Cult of Personality thing going on while Hillary is not a terrific campaigner. Trump is getting support from all over the board Tea Party, Evangelicals, Blue Dog Dems, Young people, women. It’s tough to predict this one imo
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:04 am:
“Rickets” is also the name of a Deftones song from their debut album. Just throwing it out there…
- Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:04 am:
During a family gathering last weekend a couple of my cousins announced they were voting for Trump.
When I asked them why they said “he tells it like it is and knows how to get things and won’t be afraid to take on the politcians”
Sounds like something we heard a couple of summers ago.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:08 am:
As far as Trump goes, the sooner the field winnows the sooner he is toast. If Cruz and Rubio both insist on going to the convention, then there may well be a second ballot surprise winner, and it won’t be Donald.
Even so, I’ll vote for Trump or Bernie over Hillary or Cruz any day of the week.
- Harry - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:08 am:
Take out the losers and distribute their shares across Trump, Cruz and Rubio in proportion to their current shares, and you get:
Trump 49%
Cruz 26%
Rubio 25%
Just sayin’.
If the IL GOP had a clue, they would stop trash-talking Trump, because if he is the GOP candidate all that will come back to haunt them in November. They have very little influence on whether or not he gets the nomination, but they will have to live with it if he does.
And if he wins in November, they will have really screwed the pooch–of course, the IL GOP has been real good at that for about 15 years, now.
- Anonymouth - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:10 am:
=== Don’t kid yourself, there are a lot of disaffected Dems supporting Trump too. ===
Haha OK. My recent experiences have been that Trump is the most talked about candidate by voters - and the talk is not flattering to Trump.
- CharlieKratos - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:13 am:
I think that a Trump vs Sanders general election would bring Dems out in droves and a Trump vs Clinton ticket would bring Republicans out in droves. It should be a very interesting general election, in the same way that there’s a Chinese curse of, “May you live in interesting times”.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:23 am:
Harry - agreed, but the ILGOP itself is not really instigating the trash talk. That is instead being done by proxies and not ILGOP officials or staff. Even bigtime Rubio or Kasich supporters are not in the biz of tearing apart other candidates. Officials like Ed Sullivan or Ron Sandack or Michael Connelly are keeping their message along a positive line as opposed to a negative, scorched earth campaign on behalf of their preferred candidates.
- efudd - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:24 am:
Generation X-I don’t know what a “disaffected” Dem is, but most of the Dems I know are relishing Trump as the Repub nominee, and not because they will be voting for him.
I mean, as long as we’re trading anecdotes.
- Wensicia - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:26 am:
Trump as nominee is bad news for Senator Kirk.
- Anon - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:29 am:
H.L. If you really believe anyone that voted for Rauner will vote for Trump, you’re clueless, but that would explain a lot of commenters positions here. If that were really the case, Trump would be leading by 60+% in this poll because probably 90+% of Republicans in Illinois voted for Rauner last election. Second, I voted for Rauner and will not vote for Trump in this primary. In fact, I haven’t voted yet to make sure whoever I vote for has the best chance to beat him here.
The Cubs thing is a bonehead, typical Trump mistake. The fact that he was under 30% already when this poll was done shows he has problem here already. Bashing the Cubs will cost a lot more votes in the north than it will gain him down south.
He’s the worst possible choice for the GOP. That said, if he wins the nomination (doubtful), he’s better than either socialist he might face in the fall.
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:47 am:
Gotta love the GOPie clown car headed to IL. The $upper$tar will be hoppin’ now TeeHEEE
- Generation X - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 11:58 am:
Efudd
The NYT link i gave explains it better than I can. If you think it cant happen here i’d point to Rauner as exhibit A
- Mama - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 12:05 pm:
== Norseman @ 10:28 am: ‘Jeb Bush is interested in governing to solve national problems,’ Edwards said. ‘The Republican party’s primary electorate is not. Governing requires inclusiveness, substance, and nuance. Success with the Republican electorate seems to require anti-governing stances, simple answers, and a restricted view of coalitions.’”==
It appears Edwards is describing the Tea Party. The Tea Party has taken over our U.S. Congress & most states. The Tea Party is currently trying to take over IL.
- Mama - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 12:09 pm:
Which Democrat can beat Trump?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 12:41 pm:
–H.L. If you really believe anyone that voted for Rauner will vote for Trump, you’re clueless, but that would explain a lot of commenters positions here. If that were really the case, Trump would be leading by 60+% in this poll because probably 90+% of Republicans in Illinois voted for Rauner last election.–
Can’t really endorse your arithmetic there, cousin.
There was a 2014 GOP primary for governor, if you’ll recall. Trump is running in the Illinois GOP primary for president.
Trump, a businessman who’s never before run for elective office, and who has been known to drop millions in campaign contributions on politicians in both parties to further his business interests, is running a campaign against the corrupt, career politicians of both parties in the March 15 GOP primary.
Rauner, in the 2014 GOP primary, was a businessman who’d never before run for office who had dropped millions in campaign contributions on politicians from both parties to further his business interests and ran a campaign against the corrupt, career politicians of both parties.
Rauner won the GOP primary with 40% of the vote over three career politicians.
But if I understand you correctly, someone is “clueless” if they see similarities in the appeals Rauner and Trump made to Illinois GOP voters?
Are you sure about that?
- CharlieKratos - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 12:46 pm:
Mama, polling indicates that Sanders beats Trump handily. Clinton does too, but only by a slim margin.
- Jerry Callo - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 12:57 pm:
Incredibly un-presidential . . . threatening a private citizen because of their support of an opponent. Yet he’s one domestic terrorist attack away from the White House, IMO.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 1:04 pm:
Work - my guess (and this may be way off) is that Anon 11:29 was referencing GENERAL election numbers for Republicans voting for Bruce Rauner. Again - that is just a guess.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 1:08 pm:
–Work - my guess (and this may be way off) is that Anon 11:29 was referencing GENERAL election numbers for Republicans voting for Bruce Rauner. Again - that is just a guess.–
Yes, but that’s flawed. Primary comparisons are apple to apple. And Trump is running a primary campaign similar to Rauner’s.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 1:34 pm:
Sorry - meant to way Word, not Work.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 2:10 pm:
Keep in mind, for the GOP primaries between March 1 and March 14, delegates will be awarded on a proportional basis.
Starting March 15 and going forward, GOP primaries are winner-take-all.
On March 15, GOP primaries will be held in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri.
The latest RCP polls has Trump leading in all of them.
If he wins them all, I suspect that will be the end of it.
- Stumpy's bunker - Tuesday, Feb 23, 16 @ 2:23 pm:
Rauner as governor, Trump as presidential nominee. What…what will the recovery time be for the state & national GOP?