33 Comments - wordslinger - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:29 am: What “multiple messes” is Rutter referring to? If you’re going to give someone a beating, be specific, not gratuitous. As to competence, I’d suggest Rutter compare the comptroller’s quarterly fiscal reports during the Quinn and Rauner administrations, then get back to us. - New Slang - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:30 am: “Bill Brady couldn’t take advantage…” Because…Chicago - AC - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:32 am: The most effective money Bruce Rauner could spend in the next Governor’s race would be on “Friends of Pat Quinn”. Not directly, of course, but I’m sure he knows someone with a little bit if cash sitting around. - Tapped in the 'burbs - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:33 am: Quinn has convinced himself that the citizens of Illinois are waiting for his triumphant return. He’s gone from an ineffective non-factor to the guy who keeps showing up at his old fraternity years after graduation. It’s a bit sad and a bit creepy. - Handle Bar Mustache - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:36 am: Rutter and some others have been gratuitously mean-spirited toward Pat Quinn since he left office. Nobody ever said he was perfect, but for the love of god… Quinn looks better with each passing month of Rauner rule. Good grief. - Chucktownian - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:51 am: Quinn was certainly better than Rauner. I’m about to decide that Blago was better than Rauner. Both of them at least paid the bills. Rauner has yet to do that. - Anonymous - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:54 am: Once Bill Brady ceded Cook County to Pat Quinn, he was toast. He had no organization in place to contest votes in Chicago. - Oh please! - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:59 am: He made the full pension payment every year to Illinois public employee retirement accounts. He drove down Illinois’ backlog of bills from nearly $10 billion to less than $4 billion. Despite a brutal, nationwide recession, more people were working in Illinois at the end of his term than at any point since 2008, and unemployment reached its lowest point in more than six years. He built and improved infrastructure. A $31 billion capital construction plan in 2009, the largest in Illinois history was followed by major Tollway, IDOT, conservation and water infrastructure programs, bringing construction-related work to more than half a million Illinois residents. He stood up for LGBT families, enacted civil unions, and made marriage equality for all couples a reality. He expanded health coverage to nearly 1 million previously uninsured Illinoisans, while cutting $5.7 billion in ordinary state spending and $3 billion in questionable Medicaid spending. He made Illinois the most veteran-friendly state in the nation. (e.g.: “Welcome Home Heroes” helped 1,700+ military families buy homes with down payment support.) He supported the independence of seniors and people with disabilities by increasing state funding for community and home services that keep people out of costly, segregated institutions and nursing homes. He proposed the highest-ever funding for public education in state history. He twice enacted major pension reforms – though only one survived court challenge. He raised income tax rates to balance the budget in 2011, and bravely called for a rate freeze in 2014. He enacted campaign contribution limits and gave the people the ability to recall a corrupt governor. He spearheaded “Put Illinois to Work” which used stimulus funding to subsidize employment for 26,000 people. He secured incentives to help companies like Ford and Chrysler expand and create more than 7,700 new jobs. He made Illinois more business-friendly, with Illinois ranking 3rd in the country for corporate expansions and locations by the end of his term. He doubled the Earned Income Tax Credit to provide the largest tax break to working families in Illinois history. He elevated childhood education, making “birth to five” investment the cornerstone of his 2014 Budget. He fought to raise the minimum wage to help workers and their families. He prioritized criminal justice reform and oversaw an 8% decline in the state prison recidivism rate, from 55% to 47%. He closed a “super-max” prison labeled “inhumane and ridiculously expensive” by advocates. He oversaw nearly 60% improvements in state contracting for minority and women-owned businesses. He called for and then signed a ban on pregnancy discrimination by employers against expectant mothers. He signed the Illinois Dream Act to give undocumented youth a chance at access to higher education. - Responsa - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:59 am: ==Quinn looks better with each passing month== Nope. We’ve needed new ideas and new blood in Il politics in both parties for a long time. Reasonable people can be disappointed in the Rauner administration so far. But it was the voters’ hope for a new approach and new ideas that got him to Springfield. Reviving Pat Quinn is soooo not the answer. - Mr. Smith - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:59 am: Rich, your summation was spot-on. Rauner, whatever his shortcomings (and they are myriad), ran a VERY smart, very effective campaign. Quinn, whatever his shortcomings (also myriad) seemed to be going out of his way to run an ineffectual campaign that did nothing to address concerns raised by his track record AND shortcomings that Rauner successfully exploited. And I don’t think that Quinn gets it yet. - Ron Burgundy - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 12:10 pm: -Quinn has convinced himself that the citizens of Illinois are waiting for his triumphant return.- Right. People will stop reminding each other about how ineffective he was when he stops making noise about running again. Even if you don’t like the current situation, let’s not pretend that there aren’t literally dozens of Democratic office holders who could do a better job than Quinn did. - Anon - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 12:31 pm: ===Bruce Rauner ran a highly effective campaign=== You can accomplish a lot when your campaign has nothing to do with what you’re planning on doing once you get into office. - State worker - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 12:40 pm: Oh please!– Well done. The criticisms of Quinn are always very vague…the accomplishments are specific. - Wow - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 12:42 pm: Love how Rutter concludes that participating in grassroots democracy is undignified. That’s a great message to type up and publish. So, at 70, we should all be put out to pasture and not participate in the process? I wonder…does Rutter get invited to do a lot of speeches to AARP members? I’m sure they would be inspired. - wordslinger - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 12:45 pm: The record $65 million that Rauner spent and the usual GOP turnout advantage in non-presidential years might have contributed to Rauner’s victory. Nah… Just easier to say “Pat Quinn lost it” because of “multiple messes.” If you write a column, shouldn’t you at least make an effort to have something of interest to say? There’s nothing compelling or insightful at all in this one. - allknowingmasterofracoondom - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 12:53 pm: For - Oh please! - You forgot one thing Quinn did: He gave us Squeezy, the lovable budget mascot! - Moist von Lipwig - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 1:00 pm: Whenever a campaign loses, folks pile on and say it was terrible, the worst run campaign in history. Of course it had nothing to do with the more than a million dollars Rauner donated to himself every week for the last … more than a few weeks. ha. It’s very sad that a person who is fighting for reform is attacked and told to “go away” — a knee-jerk reaction that shows that a large number of people in this state (or at least on this site) are only interested in policy insofar as it plays into a zero-sum game. And columnists think that people shouldn’t fight for good after they lose an election. - AC - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 1:14 pm: I think most of the folks telling Pat Quinn to go away are doing so out of a legitimate fear that he will become the Democratic nominee for Governor in 2018. It isn’t that he was a terrible Governor, he did have some significant accomplishments, but winning the next Governor’s race while being signicantly outspent will take someone more dynamic than Pat Quinn, and even that may not be enough. - JohnnyPyleDriver - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 1:31 pm: I’ll never understand the hate for Quinn. He made tough and unpopular decisions that, regardless of whether you agree with them, he thought were what the state needed. I can’t honestly say that about the guy who came before or after him. I’d love the chance to vote for Quinn again - striketoo - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 1:42 pm: “If you’re going to give someone a beating, be specific, not gratuitous.” “A state audit released Tuesday criticized the spending and management practices of a $55 million, taxpayer-funded anti-violence program for Chicago and Cook County that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn launched in 2010 as he was engaged in a tough election campaign.” (Ray Long and Rick Pearson, “State Audit Criticizes Quinn’s Anti-Violence Program,” The Chicago Tribune, 2/26/14) Specific enough for you? - JoanP - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 1:57 pm: Annoyingly, Quinn was trolling the Hyde Park Jazz Festival yesterday with his mayoral term limits petitions. - Chucktownian - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 2:02 pm: Again I’m not hating on Quinn but the Dems will win with anyone BUT Pat Quinn. Rauner goes down, money advantage or not with everyone but Quinn. Rauner’s candidates are getting ready to go down in flames here in six weeks too. - Lincoln Parker - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 2:05 pm: ===Tapped in the ‘burbs - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 11:33 am: …He’s gone from an ineffective non-factor to the guy who keeps showing up at his old fraternity years after graduation…=== Great analogy there, made me laugh out loud! - Cheryl44 - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 2:37 pm: “Bill Brady couldn’t take advantage…” because…Bill Brady. - wordslinger - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 2:44 pm: –”If you’re going to give someone a beating, be specific, not gratuitous.” “A state audit released Tuesday criticized the spending and management practices of a $55 million, taxpayer-funded anti-violence program for Chicago and Cook County that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn launched in 2010 as he was engaged in a tough election campaign.” (Ray Long and Rick Pearson, “State Audit Criticizes Quinn’s Anti-Violence Program,” The Chicago Tribune, 2/26/14) Specific enough for you?– Was that in Rutter’s column — the subject of my comment? You’re pretty good at sounding out the words, now try reading for comprehension. - Big Muddy - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 2:45 pm: Two helpful things that could happen to Rauner? CTU strike and Pat Quinn for Governor in 2018. Add a Hillary win and the 2018 midterms will be BRUTAL for Dems up and down the ticket. - Last Bull Moose - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 3:03 pm: Love Pat Quinn and think he was a much better Governor than most people realize. I do not think he would be an effective candidate in 2018 and hope he does not run. - Capitol View - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 3:22 pm: Quinn is hanging around waiting for his picture to be hung in the hall of governors in the second floor of the Capitol. The problem is that state officials still have not decided what to do about his predecessor, Rod Blago! - Obamas Puppy - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 3:31 pm: Rich it was a vote against Quinn not for Rauner, anyone that even glanced at polling knows that. I get that you are having some sort of love affair with the Rauner administration but lets not rewrite history. - Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 3:34 pm: Who knew Speaker Madigan would choose the screenname “Obamas Puppy”? lol I explained myself up top. If you’re just gonna drive by without providing any actual data or links or whatever, don’t bother. - anon. - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 4:53 pm: Why is the Speakers name not brought up in the lost election of PQ? Chairman of the Party called off his people and handed it to Rauner. Don’t understand in million years how we could be worse than now. - RNUG - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 4:57 pm: While I don’t want Quinn to run in 2018, the truth is he did a better job running the State than either Blago did or Rauner has to date. As -oh please- listed @ 11:59am, Quinn had significant accomplishments. With some passage of time I suspect future historians will be kinder to Quinn. - RNUG - Monday, Sep 26, 16 @ 5:10 pm: BTW, my criteria is simple competence in paying the State’s bills and providing services. As I’ve noted before, Rauner has put some good people running some of the agencies … but he’s blown the pass a budget and pay the bills part. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.