* Emptying my in-box because I gotta go get a haircut soon. From the Jeanne Ives campaign last night…
GOP Rep. McSweeney: “The ‘Fringe Candidate’ Is Bruce Rauner. He Stands For Nothing.”
Calls Rauner “Madigan’s Biggest Ally”
December 11, 2017 – For the past three years, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s biggest ally has been Governor Bruce Rauner according to State Representative David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills), who called into “Chicago’s Morning Answer” radio show on Monday Morning.
McSweeney was interviewed about the Rauner Administration’s reaction to the release of an internal memo sent by Rauner’s former General Counsel Dennis Murashko.
“I support Jeanne Ives’ call for a full investigation,” McSweeney said. “Even this morning, there was a story in Politico that the administration won’t answer questions… This is business as usual with the Rauner Administration: very secretive, not providing answers.”
McSweeny went on to say that the administration’s clandestine nature is evidence that Governor Rauner is not in charge in Springfield.
He said Ives has the character and intellect to lead conservative policy revolution in Springfield. McSweeney pointed to his personal experiences working with Jeanne Ives “I know Jeanne Ives will be in charge, and that’s why I support her,” he said.
In 2014, McSweeney, like Ives and other Republican legislators, supported Bruce Rauner’s candidacy, but says he now opposes the Governor because he saw how the Governor duped voters. “In a strange way, the biggest Madigan ally is Bruce Rauner,” he added.
“He [Madigan] talked about a tax increase for two years… we ended up with a 32% income tax hike. Bruce Rauner worked hand in hand with Mike Madigan on making Illinois a Sanctuary State. And guess who signed Madigan’s Abortion bill?”
“Bruce Rauner is the kind of guy who loves to go out and criticize, call people names,” McSweeney said. “But when push comes to shove, he’s been Madigan’s biggest ally. And that’s why we need change. That’s why Jeanne Ives would be a good governor.”
McSweeney added that the best-case scenario would be Republicans winning the 9 House seats necessary to oust Madigan as House Speaker.
“But if Madigan is still the Speaker, we need Jeanne Ives in his [Madigan’s] office respectfully, but forcefully advocating for what we believe in, ” he said.
McSweeney disagreed wholeheartedly with Rauner’s characterization of Ives as a “fringe candidate.”
“The ‘fringe candidate’ is Bruce Rauner. He stands for nothing.”
In response, Jeanne Ives said, “David is a strong defender of taxpayers in Springfield and we are happy to have his support of our campaign.”
* From the Pritzker campaign early this morning…
Rauner’s Secret MCO Deal Could “Destabilize” Medicaid, Cause “Significant Care Disruptions”
Health Policy Expert: “It Just Isn’t Going To Work”
Chicago, IL – Bruce Rauner’s secret MCO deal could “destabilize” Medicaid and cause “significant care disruptions” according to health policy expert Joel Menges. Put succinctly, “it just isn’t going to work.”
Between the no-bid contracts that shielded the deal from the public eye to the cost estimates skyrocketing by 57 percent overnight, evidence is piling up that Rauner botched the largest procurement in state history, and Illinoisans will have to pay up to cover his incompetence.
“Bruce Rauner’s stunning incompetence is costing Illinois taxpayers — again,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “After tripling the bill backlog, Rauner now wants to add another $23 billion to the cost of his secret MCO plan, all while cutting off access to healthcare and cowering to Donald Trump.”
* And then came this one…
Damage Done: Illinois Ranked 43rd Worst Run State
Chicago, IL – In a recent ranking of the best run states in America, Illinois ranked near the bottom of the list under Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership, barely beating out states like New Jersey and Alabama.
The ranking is based off key indicators of a state’s economic health, including the unemployment rate and the state’s credit rating. The analysis cites Bruce Rauner’s budget crisis and the state’s lowest-in-the-nation credit rating as key factors for the dismal spot on the list.
“Bruce Rauner manufactured crisis after crisis, dragging the Illinois economy to rock bottom and shattering our state’s credit rating,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “The Worst Republican Governor in America’s damage is done and Illinoisans are left to pick up the pieces.”
- A guy - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:07 am:
===“David is a strong defender of…”===
Himself and only what he thinks.
- Anon - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:07 am:
Are we even talking about the same Mike Madigan anymore?
I can’t tell if this is supposed to be the Speaker of the House they’re talking about or some cartoonish super villain also named Mike Madigan.
- DarkHorse - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:09 am:
Do we get to see a post-haircut selfie?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:12 am:
===or some cartoonish super villain===
It’s that. Ever read the Tribune opinion section?
- G'Kar - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:17 am:
==“But if Madigan is still the Speaker, we need Jeanne Ives in his [Madigan’s] office respectfully, but forcefully advocating for what we believe in, ” he said.==
Should that be Rauner in the brackets above? It doesn’t make sense otherwise.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:17 am:
Way to bury the lede, Rich.
Ives Knocks Rauner? Naw. Pritzker Knocks Rauner? Naw.
“Miller Gets Haircut”
Lol
- Sue - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:19 am:
In fairness - where was Illinois in terms of worst run stares as of January 2015. Probably close to where it is now
- Baloneymous - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:22 am:
===cartoonish super villain===
Ever seen a Trib cartoon? Has Madigan looking like a cross between Jeff sessions and an orc from lord of the Rings. Now that’s a villain.
- cdog - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:25 am:
Gkar, Ives will visit Madigan in his office. Her demeanor will be respectful, pragmatic, reality-based. Rauner is incapable of that because it requires a bearing of truthfulness which is/has been/will be absent.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:26 am:
==In fairness - where was Illinois in terms of worst run stares as of January 2015. Probably close to where it is now==
Cool, so Rauner has accomplished nothing in his term in office. Time for someone new.
- cdog - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:27 am:
A governor that has been labeled Governor Junk, and Worst Governor In America, by non-illinois watchers supposedly of his own party, speaks volumes.
“The ‘fringe candidate’ is Bruce Rauner. He stands for nothing.”
- @misterjayem - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:30 am:
Free* campaign advice:
1. When using an abbreviation or acronym in a document like a press release, it’s always a good idea to define it with or near its first use. (MCO means “Managed Care Organizations”)
2. When your opponent hands you an opportunity to use the word ’scheme’ — e.g. Rauner’s Secret MCO Scheme — take it.
– MrJM
*And worth every penny.
- Evanstonian - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:30 am:
Ives will treat Madigan with respect, she’ll treat anyone with respect. Well, as long as they don’t identify as LGBTQ. Or is pro-choice. Or works for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Or is a person of color. Or….
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:35 am:
In terms of Disability Services Illinois was 49th when Rauner started and it’s still in that neighborhood. So replace him, but if you don’t replace the legislative leadership you’re still stuck with the others who have allowed our state to fail.
- cdog - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:36 am:
Evanstonian, so you choose to inflame with hate speech and call Ives a racist? I think you are terribly misguided and being manipulated.
- Shemp - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:36 am:
All things considered, 43rd is very impressive. That, or the measurement is wrong, because I fully expected 49th or 50th.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:38 am:
cdog:
He’s right. Ives doesn’t treat everyone with respect. I’m not sure I would call her characterization of the gay marriage debate as individuals trying to “weasel their way” in as all that respectful.
- Evanstonian - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:43 am:
Cdog, my guy, if hate speech bothers you I got bad news for you about literally all Jeanne Ives’s was known for before deciding to run for governor…
- Phenomynous - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:49 am:
Ives has a track record of being a pragmatic legislator. She has passed several dozen bipartisan bills that have been signed by Governors in both parties. She never makes any inflammatory statements and understands the full range of issues plagueing the state from Cairo to Chicago. Raising a family in Wheaton has prepared her for the realities that face statewide elected officials.
I fully expect her to bring her winning success as a legislator with her into the Executive Office.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chicagoinc/ct-jeanne-ives-lgbtq-0805-chicago-inc-20170804-story.html
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:53 am:
==Gkar, Ives will visit Madigan in his office. ==
So he meant she will go to Madigan’s physical office? Okay, I interpreted it as we need Ives in his (Rauner’s) office as governor forcefully advocating etc. Thanks.
- Sue - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:54 am:
Pritzker’s solutions will require a massive tax increase. When that occurs the public unions will be celebrating. Rauner tried to impose fiscal discipline and failed at politics but unless you are a beneficiary of the State’s social welfare and benefit programs Pritzger is going to cost you a lot of money
- G'Kar - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 11:55 am:
Oops, I was Anonymous at 11:53.
- Nick Name - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:05 pm:
===Calls Rauner “Madigan’s Biggest Ally”===
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, Gov. Gaslight.
- Disgusted Downstate - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:06 pm:
OK, I’ll bite: what is it specifically about Wheaton that makes one prepared for the realities that face statewide elected officials if one happens to raise a family there? Are there excessive levels of squabbling there that they just don’t have in Cairo? Do parents have to go through committee and get approval from two separate houses before implementing new rules? Are the parents up for re-election every so often?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:09 pm:
Ok. I’ll break the seal…
Will McSweeney help bankroll Ives.
There.
I said it… have at it, lol
- TominChicago - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:15 pm:
Not sure what cdog is smoking but it is pretty clear that Jeannie Ives is the Louis Gohmert of the Illinois General Assembly.
- go away - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:24 pm:
= Not sure what cdog is smoking but it is pretty clear that Jeannie Ives is the Louis Gohmert of the Illinois General Assembly. =
Just not as electable.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:29 pm:
Minnesota ranks first as a “best run state.” This serves as an anti-red state, anti-Rauner model, instead of the race to the bottom anti-union, pro corporate super-rich model of the Republican governors in the Rauner TV ad.
- SaulGoodman - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:30 pm:
So… is Rep. McSweeney going to put his (substantial) money where his mouth is, and actually help fund Ives’ campaign?
- m - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 12:56 pm:
=In fairness - where was Illinois in terms of worst run stares as of January 2015. Probably close to where it is now=
Here’s the story from December 2014 https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/12/04/247-wall-st-best-worst-run-states/19879297/
Illinois ranked 50th then. JB’s team picked a story that actually makes it look like Rauner improved the state. Both versions basically knocked Illinois for credit rating and pension underfunding.
Even the 2017 version started its Illinois description with “decades of mismanagement”. You should read both articles, they both sound like Rauner speeches when it comes to Illinois.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 1:31 pm:
–It’s that. Ever read the Tribune opinion section?–
There was a hilarious bit on “Chicago Week in Review” last week.
Paris Schutz expressed surprise over the recent tronc edit ripping Rauner and asked Katrina if Rauner had “lost” the tronc edit board.
With a straight face, Katrina said they had been equally critical of “both sides” over the years.
Cant make up stuff like that.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 1:40 pm:
–Rauner tried to impose fiscal discipline…–
You started early.
- Skeptic - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 2:30 pm:
“Pritzger is going to cost you a lot of money” There are whole bunch of social service agencies and vendors and universities that were cost a whole heck of a lot of money by the other guy.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 2:40 pm:
=Rauner tried to impose fiscal discipline and failed at politics but unless you are a beneficiary of the State’s social welfare and benefit programs Pritzger is going to cost you a lot of money=
All evidence to the contrary aside, you still wrong.
Rauner played the cowards hand and vetoed the budget but still spent the money. There is absolutely no discipline in his $2.8 billion of over spending.
Unless you think devastating social services is a form of “discipline”.
Illinois wasn’t going to make the accounting deans’ list before Rauner appeared.
Funny thing about raising the revenue needed to match spending, it has a positive impact on an economy. As evidence see Kansas v. Minnesota et al.
The shrieking about taxes is tiring and overdone. There has never been a level of taxation that didn’t get sobbing and hand wringing, so why don’t we go ahead and pay our bills and actually for realsies stimulate our economy.
That would be private sector, by the way.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 2:43 pm:
==Ives will treat Madigan with respect, she’ll treat anyone with respect. Well, as long as they don’t identify as LGBTQ. Or is pro-choice. Or works for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Or is a person of color.==
Please tell us more about how Ives is a closed-minded racist bigot, please. I believe West Pointers are required to follow a strict honor code which disallows racism. You got proof that Ives broke that? Or has your imagination run away from you?
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 2:58 pm:
==West Pointers are required to follow a strict honor code==
Yes, because the military never has any problems with people ignoring that honor code. Don’t be daft.
And VMan, do some Google searches on Ives and you’ll find some not so nice comments from her. As I stated, the one that comes to mind is her beyond the pale comment about gay marriage when she said they were trying to “weasel there way” in.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 2:59 pm:
==Bruce Rauner is the kind of guy who loves to go out and criticize, call people names==
He has nothing else. He’s spent his entire term being a victim.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 3:03 pm:
Where’s the proof of racism?
Put it up.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 3:28 pm:
Every politician has moved left regarding gay rights -
Rep. Ives: There is nothing that I know of that are called rights that are not specific to any individual. The federal government has weighed in on marriage equality. That is federal law. I am a rule follower. So federal law, like I said when it comes to legal immigration, we are going to follow federal law in the state, regardless of what the law is. That’s my position.
Your “not nice” comments are from six years ago on a Catholic radio show. That’s only one year after President Obama came out against his earlier opposition to the issue, and both Clintons had been publically opposed to gay rights until 2012.
Ives won’t be able to champion gay rights as a Catholic conservative, but she has no interest repeating her earlier statement, or overturning Federal Law.
That’s a win folks.
- Evanstonian - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 3:48 pm:
VanillaMan — Hate to be the bearer of bad news, bud. First, not sure why you think Ives changed her opinion on gay marriage 6 years ago. In 2013, she said gay couples were “completely disordered” and they they were trying to “weasel their way into respectability.” This was only 4 years ago.
A few months ago she compared teachers advocating for the rights of their LGBT students to “dirty old men in trenchcoats.” Not long after, she also called the SPLC, a civil rights group a “hate group.”
When Ives said poor women don’t deserve help for their childcare because they don’t know who their baby’s daddy is, what, pray tell, do you think she was insinuating?
VMan, I have no idea why you like Ives as she is just as virulently anti-union and anti-teacher as Rauner but without Rauner’s 21st century views on social issues.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 4:47 pm:
VMan
What difference does it make when she made them. You’re the one that brought up this “honor code” nonsense as if that was the end of all discussion. She said it. I pointed it out.
And you’re better than going to a “yeah but” argument with your Obama comment.
- Rabid - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 5:35 pm:
JB and Jeanne have the same goal, the removal of Bruce Rauner ASAP
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 7:42 pm:
We’ve got only one woman running for governor, but we have a whole bunch of Democrats, supposedly pro-woman, accusing her of being racist because she is not pro-gay marriage. They necklace her with baseless slander because she favors traditional values. Good heavens, its not the end of the Earth if the next governor is a conservative female who favors what 95% of our citizens are, is it?
There is no evidence of her discriminating against a citizen due to race. None. So be careful slandering the only female candidate in the race.
- SaulGoodman - Tuesday, Dec 12, 17 @ 10:42 pm:
** accusing her of being racist because she is not pro-gay marriage. **
Uhhhhh… no, that’s not it.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Dec 13, 17 @ 9:09 am:
=There is no evidence of her discriminating against a citizen due to race. None. So be careful slandering the only female candidate in the race.=
=When Ives said poor women don’t deserve help for their childcare because they don’t know who their baby’s daddy is, what, pray tell, do you think she was insinuating?=
So what you’re saying is that because Ives is the only female candidate we have to ignore her prior comments? She’s a flawed candidate and there’s nothing slanderous about pointing it out. Now if you think Rauner’s flaws are more significant than Ives that’s fine, but let’s at least be honest about it.