* From AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall…
“Less than a day after the second legislative session of his tenure ended again with no state budget in place, Governor Rauner is back on the campaign trail and exploiting state worksites for his own political purposes.
“This morning Rauner held a news conference at the Alton Mental Health Center where, according to media reports, he attacked Democrats and urged people to vote against them. At midday he held another media event at a state prison in Vienna with Republican state Senate candidate Dale Fowler in tow.
“It is highly unethical for Governor Rauner to use a public psychiatric facility and a correctional center as backdrops for his partisan political attacks and candidate promotion, and quite possibly a violation of the State Ethics Act, which prohibits political activity on state property and state time.
“In addition, it is disingenuous at best for Governor Rauner to pose at these facilities after he has spent more than a year falsely attacking state employees, denigrating their union, and threatening them with disciplinary action merely for criticizing his policies.
“Governor Rauner should focus on his own job—signing a budget without precondition—and leave state employees to do theirs.”
…Adding… The governor’s folks are flatly denying that he made any campaign statements at the facilities and said they invited local mayors to the Vienna event. Fowler is a mayor.
…Adding More… From an administration official…
I don’t know what’s more absurd - AFSCME claiming that elected officials advocating to keep government facilities open constitutes campaigning or the state’s largest employee union rooting for a government shutdown.
…Adding Still More… AFSCME points to this tweet as evidence of campaigning…
- Say It Ain't So!!! - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 3:58 pm:
Illinois Governors are not required to have ethics.
- Man with a plan - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 3:59 pm:
Valid points if he did make the mistake of getting partisan and electoral in his speech.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:01 pm:
Given the partisan attacks, I hope today’s travel was paid for with campaign funds.
- Birdseed - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:03 pm:
—signing a budget without precondition—
I think that’s been the norm.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:04 pm:
Lots and lots and lots of opportunities for Labor and state workers to vote accordingly against Raunerites.
Lots.
Today upsets up?
Pay attention, vote accordingly.
- Mama - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:04 pm:
There is a reason he used those facilities as the background to his message.
Is he telling the people in southern IL he will close those state facilities if he doesn’t get what he wants?
- Norseman - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:05 pm:
Not much of an attack IMHO. However, like Rich points out if he can dish it out, he can take it.
- Mama - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:08 pm:
Southern Illinoisans are smarter than he thinks they are.
- Louis Capricious - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:14 pm:
So, the union folks can’t post a flyer in a state facility to promote an event because the administration deems it too political, but the guv can actually stage political events (by the same definition) at multiple state facilities? Gotcha.
- NIU Grad - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:16 pm:
This is very weak…Aren’t the State Capitol and JRTC state facilities as well? I guess they’ll have to walk out to the sidewalk for every routine press conference now.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:16 pm:
Just curious… How DID he travel today? Find it hard to believe it was by road.
- DrMark - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:21 pm:
When has ethics ever bothered the Governor?
- Huh? - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:22 pm:
Where is the OIG?
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:24 pm:
GET SOME ANDERS!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!. (psst…. Anders… you’ve got a piece of him between your teeth..just there.)
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:24 pm:
If this upsets you, then remember it later.
That’s it. You follow? That’s it, there’s no “there” there…
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:26 pm:
Oh what, You think you’re the only one who can complain to the EOIG? Dude, we all just had to take the ethics training and test. BTW the Rauner is Wrong poster was not unethical and totally allowed. Tag your it.
- slow down - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:26 pm:
His entire tenure as Governor has been a never ending political campaign. Today was just more of the same. Sadly, he still hasn’t figured out that governing is not the same as campaigning, which (stating the obvious) is a problem because he is in fact our Governor and real people with real problems are suffering the consequences.
- Sir Reel - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:31 pm:
Governor opens mouth, campaign rhetoric issues forth.
What’s changed?
- JB - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:32 pm:
We need another Jim Edgar as Governor This Governor does not care about the workers of this state Does he not realize that the workers of this state are also tax payers, does he not realize that thousands of these workers have family members who work in the private sector Does he not realize that the majority of the people of Illinois appreciate state workers and the services they provide to the State?
It is high time that he Republican legislators start telling this Governor that he had better start governing and stop playing his political games when it comes to collective bargaining, etc
- Siriusly - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:33 pm:
Fowler being there as a mayor is legit. But what changes the legitimacy of any public event is what the Governor says. If he says vote for Fowler. Vote Republican. That’s campaignin.
- Sue - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:33 pm:
😂😂😂😂crockadile tears. Maybe the Union can get Madigan to pass a bill sending the question to arbitration
- Sue - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:35 pm:
JB- you got it wrong- it’s the employees who don’t care about our Stste
- steward - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:36 pm:
I remember when a former agency director put on the intranet that we all better tell our reps to support quinns’s pension reform or we might be laid off due to lack of funds.
Always been a “do as I say not as I do” attitude when it comes to this stuff.
But the administration is so sensitive when rally flyers go up on protected spaces.
As to the update: So are we now allowed to hold political rallies on state property on state time? Something like “keep facility X open!” Good to know the governor would have our back on that… /s
- Triple fat - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:38 pm:
I didn’t think I’d get away with my last attempt.., probably wasn’t the first one, either.
- No Use For A Name - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:46 pm:
It would be difficult for AFSCME to sound more dramatic and desperate in a statement.
- Boss - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:54 pm:
If he was standing outside the facilities in the public way, it’s not a problem. If he was on state property and appearing with a Republican candidate while firing partisan shots, then he definitely crossed the line.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:57 pm:
== it’s the employees who don’t care about our State==
Why in the world would you say that?
- Quinn's bin - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 4:59 pm:
As afscme should be aware voting is not always about politics and elections. Lawmakers vote everyday on policy issues like sb580 and bailing out Rahm.
- cdog - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:05 pm:
makes ya wonder what the next 12 hours will bring…
(If he was my teenager, I’d have the phone, the car, and the remote, followed by a very clean catbox, refrigerator, garage, porch, and basement. In my house, you can join society when you know how to act.)
This guy has no perception of appropriate boundaries, very little self-control, and ambitious to a destructive level.
This is an adult having a tantrum, triggered because he didn’t get his way yesterday on his Instant Stopgap Budget demand.
“I want it NOWwwwwwww….”
- PENSIONS ARE OFF LIMITS - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:11 pm:
Tourin’ and tweetin’. Pointin’ out to labor who to rally against.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:13 pm:
I think it would be helpful if Rauner spent less time attaching the dem leaders, who he needs to make a deal with, and more time focusing on a budget with some modest/doable reforms.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:31 pm:
***Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:13 pm:
I think it would be helpful if Rauner spent less time attaching the dem leaders, who he needs to make a deal with, and more time focusing on a budget with some modest/doable reforms.***
Very reasonable advise, but being reasonable isn’t the reason he bought the office. Destruction of organized labor in Illinois appears to be one of the main goals.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:32 pm:
This is a portion of my training days.
A. Political Activities
State employees may not engage in political activities while “on State time.” “On State time” does not include authorized vacation time, personal leave, compensatory time or State Holidays. Employees may not intentionally take or use any State property or resources for the benefit of a campaign for elective office or for any political organization. Supervisors cannot require employees to perform political activities as a condition of employment with the State or in consideration for any State compensation or benefit. Below are 15 political activities that the ethics law specifically prohibits state employees from doing on state time.
- John Fowler - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:35 pm:
Really?
Senator Fowler wants to cut jobs at a prison in his district?
- Lester Holt's Mustache - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:43 pm:
Demoralized, you’ll have to ignore him/her. Since Rauner was elected, she/he has shown up here regularly to post gratuitous insults and inappropriate comments directed at state workers, repeatedly debunked falsehoods and drive-by comments. I assume he/she is a Rauner admin official :/
- Anon221 - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:51 pm:
Anonymous @ 5:32- Ah, but Rauner probably doesn’t think JD should be counted as an employee. After all, he’s not takin’ a salary or pension, and his “rent” at the Mansion is his generous donations toward the leaky roof, doncha know;) ( this is sarcasm BTW)
- Anon221 - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 5:52 pm:
he, not JD. Bleeping autocorrect!
- Jerry - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 6:00 pm:
Kinda sounds like he’s campaigning there….
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 6:33 pm:
I never had any desire to be in the same room with BVR but this is a good reason to go to his events and record them.
- Anon - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 7:11 pm:
—-It is high time that he Republican legislators start telling this Governor that he had better start governing and stop playing his political games when it comes to collective bargaining, etc—
It is about time the Democrat Legislators start telling this Speaker that he had better start governing…
There. Fixed that for you…
- illinois manufacturer - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 7:41 pm:
Looks like clear violation of the ethics act based on anon from the book… Whats the penalty?
- PENSIONS ARE OFF LIMITS - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 7:56 pm:
It is about time the Democrat Legislators start telling this Speaker that he had better start governing…
-not his job
- Louis Capricious - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 8:05 pm:
From the Trib’s evening coverage …
=== “We’ve got to get the folks here, in Champaign County and in Sangamon County and throughout the state to stand up and vote for their districts, not for Speaker Madigan and John Cullerton and the Chicago political machine that they are loyal to,” Rauner said at the administrative offices of Mahomet-Seymour Community Unit School District No. 3 in east-central Illinois. ===
Well, that’s just what happened yesterday, particularly in the House where non-Chicago lawmakers derided the Senate ed funding bill as too friendly to Chicago - to the detriment of everybody else.
But, seriously, Rauner knows this too, and he doesn’t care. This is a guy who, just like Rod, is more than happy to say whatever he or his people think is most likely to win over the audience at hand - regardless of how it may relate to reality or whatever it is he said to a different audience just 12 hours previously.
Winning trumps reality, consistency and intellectual honesty.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 8:28 pm:
- Anon - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 7:11 pm:
—-It is high time that he Republican legislators start telling this Governor that he had better start governing and stop playing his political games when it comes to collective bargaining, etc—
It is about time the Democrat Legislators start telling this Speaker that he had better start governing…
There. Fixed that for you…
Anon…..I’m typing slow so you can keep up.
Governors “govern”;
Legislators (madigan) legislate (make laws)….
There fixed it for you
- efudd - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 9:04 pm:
He invited local mayors?
Did Brandon Phelps and Gary Forby get invites?
I mean, that prison is in their districts and everything.
- Triple fat - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 9:36 pm:
Violations of the Ethics Act may result in disciplinary action up to and including the filing of criminal charges… I think. Or am I misremembering the infamous Friday at 4 o’clock memo?
- Highland IL - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 10:20 pm:
Beiser’s opponent was at Alton with Gov.
- Shemp - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 11:08 pm:
Oh brother.
- aspects - Wednesday, Jun 1, 16 @ 11:13 pm:
=== “We’ve got to get the folks here, in Champaign County and in Sangamon County and throughout the state to stand up and vote for their districts, not for Speaker Madigan and John Cullerton and the Chicago political machine that they are loyal to,” Rauner said at the administrative offices of Mahomet-Seymour Community Unit School District No. 3 in east-central Illinois. ===
Has Rauner looked at these counties? Champaign County has four representatives (three Republicans and one Democrat) and two senators (one Republican and one Democrat). Sangamon County has four representatives (three Republicans and one Democrat) and three senators (two Republicans and one Democrat.) Why not just call out those four Democrats by name?
In my opinion, it is the Republicans not voting these counties.
- RNUG - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 12:01 am:
Actually, Rauner may well cause some seats in those GOP counties to flip D. Going to depend on how good a ground game the unions have.
- Juvenal - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 2:59 am:
Beiser’s opponent just happened to be at the Alton event?
Is he the mayor of Alton?
- Triple fat - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 7:27 am:
I’d file an ethics complaint but I don’t think the OIG would take it seriously.., especially when I sign it Triple fat.
- Rod - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 7:27 am:
Governor Rauner has made it clear he is in an ideological battle with the Democrats and their union supporters. The public sector unions have made it clear that they recognize they are in a fundamental conflict with Governor Rauner. It’s where we are at right now, the Governor is playing the cards he has and so are the unions. There are no innocents in this fight except for some Democrat Senators that seem to think they are above all of this.
- Anon - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 7:54 am:
—–Anon…..I’m typing slow so you can keep up.
Governors “govern”;
Legislators (madigan) legislate (make laws)….
There fixed it for you—–
Legislators still pass laws…such as the (balanced) budget…which Madigan didn’t do, and has no interest in doing.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 8:08 am:
“Legislators still pass laws…such as the (balanced) budget…which Madigan didn’t do, and has no interest in doing.”
Rauner still has not submitted a balanced budget… do we need to keep repeating this. Check the Constitution.
- Cmon - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 8:18 am:
Pick your battles, AFSCME. What about Del Giorno passing out lit at your union rally on the Capitol complex? Also, “voting” for downstate could be votes on legislation on the house/Senate floor.
- Triple fat - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 8:29 am:
Cmon -
Looks like an AFSCME winner to me… Considering The position the Administration took on union activity that is specifically exempted from the Ethics Act. I’ll admit it tamped down the rally’s attendance but we still had over 10,000 folks. Just imagine how many attendees would have been there had the ’supposed’ Ethics Officers acted ethically and not lied to union employees.
- cdog - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 8:42 am:
Rauner was probably in Alton to get a look inside the facility for a friend, with privatization being the real goal. /s
- Winnin' - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 8:43 am:
Takin’ some bullets for the team.
- Highland, IL - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 10:01 am:
==Juvenal
Beiser’s opponent just happened to be at the Alton event?
Is he the mayor of Alton? ==
No, and didn’t run in the primary
- A Jack - Thursday, Jun 2, 16 @ 10:27 am:
Rod still claims that he is innocent too.