* Let’s try this again because people seem to be getting way too far into the weeds. Gov. Rauner was asked in October about a lawsuit filed against him by Kip Kirkpatrick. Media outlets had reported that Rauner had demanded the case be sealed. So, a reporter asked him “Why are you fighting to keep that sealed?”…
Gov. Rauner: I am not. So, to be clear, my assets, all my investments are in a trust that I don’t control. I did that when I became governor. I can’t comment on any business disputes. That gets settled in its own process.
Reporter: Is that the reason why it’s sealed because it’s through a blind trust?
Gov. Rauner: I can’t even tell you, I mean, I don’t really have much to do with that.
Today, the Democratic Governors Association filed a public records request with Governor Bruce Rauner’s office, seeking visitor logs for the Governor’s Mansion and his temporary residence at the State Fairgrounds.
The DGA submitted the request following the revelation in a lawsuit unsealed this week that Governor Rauner held a meeting related to his business interests on the back porch of the Governor’s Mansion. Rauner netted a $15 million profit from the settlement of the investment, which he discussed on the back porch.
“Bruce Rauner asked the public to trust him, and he broke that trust,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Rauner promised the public he would wall himself off from his business interests. Now, Rauner must come clean and turn over any information about other business meetings he had while in office.”
Rauner has fought attempts to bring transparency in the operation of his office. The Illinois Times tried to obtain Rauner’s office calendar which quickly lead to a long lawsuit. Rauner maintains he does not use an email address, but his office fought the release of his wife’s emails even though the Chicago Sun-Times showed they pertained to state business.
Specifically, the DGA is requesting:
copies of all visitor logs of the Governor’s mansion in Springfield from January 12, 2015 to January 23, 2018; and
copies of all visitor logs of the Governor’s temporary residence located on (or near) the Illinois State Fairgrounds from March 1, 2017 to January 23, 2018.
…Adding… Pritzker campaign…
On the heels of a now unsealed lawsuit against Bruce Rauner, a new report confirms that Rauner held a private business meeting at the People’s House, aiming to maximize his personal profit while driving state finances into the ground.
Despite pledging to remove himself from business dealings when he took office, Rauner reneged on that promise and had his state-paid secretary schedule a meeting with Kip Kirkpatrick at the Governor’s Mansion. The 300% profit on the business deal was “apparently not enough for Rauner.” The Associated Press filed Freedom of Information Act requests in 2015 to pry Rauner’s official calendar from the administration to confirm the meeting took place.
“It is now clear that Bruce Rauner conducted private business while in office, despite repeatedly vowing to remove himself from the potentially conflicting deals,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “This failed governor spent years trying to cover up his unethical behavior and blatant lies to the public, undoubtedly breaking the trust of the people of this state.”
Starting from the beginning, are not these two properties “the peoples’ properties?” It just seems to me that the Mansion and the State Fair residence belong to the people, and thus we have a legal right to know who is coming and going. I must confess I am not well versed in political matters, but am I missing something here?
Mr .01% sure lives a life way beyond my comprehension .. I congratulate him on his keen business acumen. He and his super rich buds are fighting over huge sums of money, but the Gov doesn’t believe that teachers should have a right to negotiate their salary, work rules, or benefits. Wow..
Will he be followed by Bruceocchio? Raunocchio?
Or is plain old Pinocchio good enough?
(Maybe he can grow up someday to be a real man who can be in charge.)
If he was so casual about these meetings, how many others might there be?
Why is state paid spox bold involved in commenting on personal matters of a “blind” trust and litigation? “It started before he was governor”. Thats pretty thin gruel.
The filings mention letters sent to rauner–not the trust?
I don’t see Rauner having a chance at being reelected, but this topic isn’t going to be the reason. Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation. Work yourself into a lather if you want but seems like wasted energy.
Back in 2015, the Rauner crew threw around the term “blind trust” like a manhole cover, knowing full well that no such structure had been made.
There’s nothing in Rauner’s power-of-attorney arrangement that legally prevents him from directly participating in running his personal financial empire. Clearly, he has done so.
Given that, Rauner needs to reveal his investments in entities that do business with the state and other Illinois governments and his role in guiding those investments. TII, for crying out loud. That’s a bare minimum, with our history.
The public needs to see it in writing; by now, it must be clear to all but the most zealous Rauner cultists that you can’t take the man at his word.
SSL, it’s the hypocrisy and the pattern of behavior, that are troubling. The governor can’t seem to tell a truth to save his skin. He talks about eliminating waste, fraud, and insider dealings yet continues that same behavior.
It’s not working into a lather. It’s, to borrow Kennedy’s phrase from the other day, “speaking truth to power.”
I don’t see Rauner having a chance at being reelected, but this topic isn’t going to be the reason. Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation. Work yourself into a lather if you want but seems like wasted energy
The irony. The progressive income tax is a near certainty now. Had Quinn won, no chance in bades.
- Henry Francis - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:23 am:
How much more did Bruce think he was entitled to above and beyond his 300% return? $5M? $20M?
He is apparently laser focused on the details of this personal transaction involving his personal money (and quibble over a minor amout of money for someone who earns $180M passively off his investments during the 1st year of being Guv) - while his DHFS fails to adequately monitor over $7 BILLION of taxpayers’ money and the state runs up record amounts of debt (I know. I know - OPM)
I think it’s all pretty obvious what was going here (and the Guv hiding from it certainly seems to confirm it). So the only question I have is what costume did the Guv wear for this meeting? My guess is biker boy (so he could look tough and try to intimidate the Kipster).
I would be real interested in knowing about his state of Illinois bond holdings. His actions have been driving rates up and as the dispute at issue shows, even a 300% return isn’t enough for Rauner. He’s motivated to have the most money possible and he seems pretty willing to do anything to attain it.
–Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation.–
Wow, you miss the point even after it’s delivered with a two-by-four to the head.
The governor has maintained that he’s not involved, at all, in his personal investments. He clearly is, and on the taxpayer dime, too.
Now, it’s incumbent upon him to reveal his investments that do business with Illinois governments and his role in directing them.
For example, it’s documented that in the past the governor was heavily invested in companies that received Medicaid funding. A few weeks ago, the governor signed $63 billion in Medicaid contracts.
1) Rauner made very clear that his vast wealth would be something he would not know or control its movement, and he would not be doing a business himself, purposely, as governor.
2) Rauner seems to say he had no idea why he was being sued, and what the lawsuit was about.
Both, it turns out, are so wrong, the ethical standards of jyst honesty has been shattered.
The standard Rauner’s Crew wants…
“Just because you weren’t accused of any wrongdoing doesn’t mean you didn’t do anything wrong.”
The Governor’s Office stepped into a trap in their statement to the Sun-Times and unwittingly confirmed the blind trust is a farce:
== “The Governor is seeking to enforce the terms of that contract.”….Rauner spokeswoman Rachel Bold said in a statement. ==
Wait, the “Governor”? Doesn’t she mean the “blind trust”???
If the blind trust was a real thing and she was going to keep Rauner aligned with his previous public statement, she should tell the media: “The Governor did not file this suit, the blind trust did. You have to contact the attorneys for comment.”
I am waiting for an enterprising young journalist to make the connections of his role as governor and how that has effected his business. I think there will be much more to this story.
The fifteen million dollar question is did Rauner profit or even attempt to profit from his mismanagement of the budget process. If he did, that puts him several orders of magnitude worse than Blagojevich.
Blagojevich tried to shake down a children’s hospital, while Rauner may been shaking down the entire state and in particular Illinois’ most vulnerable citizens.
The GA needs to look into this when they come in session next week.
===I think there will be much more to this story.===
This will/would be a story that has 80+ hour work week and tons of legwork and cross-checking to not only large transactions, but the timing and possibly, (but I know I don’t know) a mirroring of what the state was doing during the non-budget years, let alone last year.
This is a story that could fizzle out by the Sunday papers.
Doesn’t mean it should, doesn’t mean it’s not a big ethical story.
It does mean how far will this story be chased on the two prongs Rich sees, and if there are branches to the uncovered facts we now know, because of a law suit seemingly based on greed.
==Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation.==
Yes. Symbols matter, and those of us in Sangamon County have to hear about how important the Governor’s Mansion is every 4 years. To have it and other state resources used to facilitate personal enrichment is a slap in the face. And it’s exactly what Rauner complains about others doing.
But the bigger issue here is that he lied. He said he wasn’t involved in his personal investments, and it turns out he’s taking meetings on them…on the back porch of the Governor’s mansion…and in Chicago…while the Quincy Veterans Home faces a Legionnaire’s outbreak…
And that he has gone to such great efforts to *hide* these meetings. If they are, as you suggest, no big deal, than why does Rauner hide them? And since he hid these two…are there more? Since he’s actively involved in his investments, while serving as Governor…what is he invested in? Does it involve state finances? And since he also promised to donate any gains he made…did he do that?
There’s so many questions here. It’s one of those classic scandals where you have no idea where it may lead. And it may be no where. But it’s a big deal.
Also… while the DGA and others seem to be questioning the transaction and lawsuit in the context of Rauner being hands off and that being just flat out phony now…
… where are the “Non-Ives” folks on this in Rauner’s ILGOP?
Are they turning a blind eye to Rauner pretending he had a blind eye to his businesses?
- Robert the Bruce - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:02 am:
===The fifteen million dollar question is did Rauner profit or even attempt to profit from his mismanagement of the budget process. If he did, that puts him several orders of magnitude worse than Blagojevich.===
Excellent question. And even if it is purely political, why aren’t either chamber launching a public investigation of this?
==Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation.==
Are we talking about the McDonald’s on South Grand? If so, no. Because you never know when a car is going to drive through the lobby. I don’t know about everybody else, but I’d feel better if the governor didn’t tell me his personal finances were in a blind trust he had nothing to do with and then turnaround and directly negotiate personal financial deals on the backporch of the executive mansion.
This is the Governor’s Statement of Economic Interest filed in 2017 for 2016 activity (Rich posted this on the blog last year).
Among many other items is a listing of a capital gain of “$5000 or more” from Kirkpatrick Capital Partners Fund LLP.
That’s the first place to put the shovel. THe rest looks incomprehensible to me, but then, I’m not an expert in this stuff. Hopefully someone who knows what they are doing will take a deep dive into this.
- hisgirlfriday - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:15 am:
I just keep going back to the fact that this dude lied to an Archbishop.
It is better that he didn’t go to Mc Donald’s for this meeting since there wouldn’t have been a public record of the meeting other than the court documents.
Unfortunately we don’t know what meetings occurred outside of state property. What else may have been discussed at those North Shore cocktail parties besides “messenging.” Were Illinois bond prices discussed and ways to drive the bond prices down so that Rauner and his friends could pick them up for a song? We know Rauner had control of his investments which could have included Illinois bonds.
Apparently, 10 Hail Marys and a six-piece chicken nugget Happy Meal (with apple slices) is all “Real” and the Rauner admin needs to absolve the gov of his lies.
Hawaiian Heat, thank you for that link. Eye opening! GTR was paid the most fees and is one of the worst performing companies hired to invest Illinois funds. Is Illinois still paying GTR fees with that abysmal records? As the link states, for every $10 Illinois spends, Illinois gets $1. Check my math but that is -1000%
Apparently continuing his 3.5 year unbroken streak aof lying about every aspect of life election nite phone calls, biz scams, trump, Cardinal, etc., on and on is now of interest
How about someone with access to Bermuda Papers and other database run his list of holdings just to see what connects.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:50 am:
Someone should ask Erica Harold if, as state’s attorney, she will look into this.
PolitiFact is going to have to re-design their system to determine the extent of falsehood in Bruce’s daily utterances. For example, giving the correct day and/or time counts as a ‘1′.
- don the legnd - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:05 pm:
I’m waiting for Rauner to claim this whole story is ‘fake news”.
If the media keeps questioning him, he will have to pull a Trump or admit he lied.
I don’t see Governor Junk ever admitting to a lie.
To me the the Governor’s habit of not telling the truth is the most disturbing aspect of the man. And it’s not only that he lies, it’s that his lies are so easily proven to be lies.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:07 pm:
There is a sound clip of a Rauner presser that was in this blog I believe on 11/11/16. It was when Rauner released his 2015 tax return—the first year of Rauner’s term and the year his income more than tripled.
Rauner did a spiel about religion and his generosity and then said he invested public employee pensions (he didn’t call them pensions but retirement savings accounts or some “euphemism” like that). That was a gratuitous statement, not specifically asked for by reporters. I don’t think any reporter asked any follow up questions, and I wonder why Rauner said it. It gave the impression that he made a lot of money that way.
GovJunk diversion team at work Tey have SquirrellyWherli commenting on pervert Dr.Nasser.
Nice try…didn’t work. Who is netxt? ButzButler with some bicenntenial jibberish?
I’m waiting for Rauner to claim this whole story is ‘fake news”.
-the Chicago Tribune comment section has some commenters saying this story is fake news.
- Chris P. Bacon - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:28 pm:
Rauner’s dishonesty is breathtaking. For one thing, his assets have never been in a blind trust, and Rauner obviously knows that. But the push-over press in this state largely lets him get away with even the most absurd claims so it’s hardly surprising he keeps doing it.
They covered it all, it’s a solid statement, a marker they can revisit time and again, and also revisit with a greater vigor if more transactions find the light if day.
That clicking sound you hear is Madigan Tap Dancing in his office. Rauner can’t have any toes left, he constantly shoots himself in the foot. I have never seen anyone go from crisis to crisis, all of his own manufacture. How can he be anything but the loser in the next election? I can’t imagine any thinking person, would condone his behavior, and cast a vote in his direction.
Conducting personal business on state property is a violation of the ethics act. A rank and file state employee caught doing this could be subject to discipline up to and including termination.
“What did the Governor know, and when did he not know it?”
Spends over 50 mil to win the Governorship, millions more to get re-elected, and stands to lose it all - by quibbling with a partner he wants to stiff, over an extra four-five he didn’t earn, on a 20-mil profit.
And he claims some kind of special rich man’s amnesia: “I don’t know what’s going on with my money”. “I don’t know who’s in charge of it right now, …some guy, I guess…”
=Spends over 50 mil to win the Governorship, millions more to get re-elected, and stands to lose it all - by quibbling with a partner he wants to stiff, over an extra four-five he didn’t earn, on a 20-mil profit.=
If this was a careless one time mistake I’d agree with you. But I personally think it says a lot more about the make-up of Rauner. I suspect that he attributes his success to quibbling over everything and coming out on the winning end. In that sense he probably shares a lot of the same characteristics of our President. I think at this stage it’s not so much about the money involved, its some guiding principle that requires to be right and unwavering. He probably couldn’t stand the idea of getting less than everything he felt entitled to in the Kirkpatrick deal. And he probably also can’t stand the notion that we think we’re entitled to know what his business dealings are. It’s very brazen.
That clicking sound you hear, is Madigan tap Dancing at the Capitol. The Governor constantly makes the job of defeating him easier. How can anyone who thinks, cast a vote for this type of individual. He has cost himself the public trust, and I see no way to get it back in the future. Can anyone say “Wow this guy is really doing a good job”? Come on folks, we are entitled to some level of competence.
Hawaiian Heat, that’s some good stuff. I was always under the impression that the GTCR funds had done very well. Wow, that’s bad.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 2:23 pm:
Chicago Cynic, your earlier impressions are correct. Most of the GTCR funds have been quite successful, doubling investors’ money and providing returns in the high teens/low 20 percent range. They just finished raising a $5.25 billion Fund XII, continuing a trend of raising larger amounts with each new fund.
The article cited by “Hawaiian Heat” is total baloney and was written last year by a short-lived and discredited website.
Google “GTCR Fund Performance” to check my work if you would like.
- don the legend - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 2:47 pm:
Anonymous 12:59 —Spends over 50 mil to win the Governorship, millions more to get re-elected, and stands to lose it all —
He made 180 million in just his first year in office. Perhaps he isn’t “losing it all.”
Arthur Anderson,
Haven’t heard much of you lately.
How do you feel about Rauner’s lies on this topic? The blind trust and all?
Curious.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 4:09 pm:
Sugar, I think the Governor’s dissembling about the blind trust is disappointing and reprehensible. I just don’t get the guy sometimes, well quite often lately.
- SinkingShip - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:52 am:
Bruce “Loose Truths” Rauner, flailing in the muck.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:53 am:
===I don’t really have much to do with that.===
He’s not in charge either.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:53 am:
That was me at 9:53.
- Flynn's Mom - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:55 am:
Is he in charge of anything in his life?
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:56 am:
Reporter: Is there attorneys who are doing that?
Gov. Rauner: I assume. I don’t know.
He doesn’t know if he has an attorney or what the attorney is doing. Yeah right.
- H-W - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:57 am:
Starting from the beginning, are not these two properties “the peoples’ properties?” It just seems to me that the Mansion and the State Fair residence belong to the people, and thus we have a legal right to know who is coming and going. I must confess I am not well versed in political matters, but am I missing something here?
- Wow - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:58 am:
Mr .01% sure lives a life way beyond my comprehension .. I congratulate him on his keen business acumen. He and his super rich buds are fighting over huge sums of money, but the Gov doesn’t believe that teachers should have a right to negotiate their salary, work rules, or benefits. Wow..
- Macbeth - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 9:58 am:
And this is a surprise? Of course, he knew.
This is like someone saying, yeah, I’m beginning to realize Trump is nuts.
Um, well…
- Huh? - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:00 am:
When have any of 1.4%’s denials been believable?
For that matter, when has anything that 1.4% said been believable?
Mr. “I’ll be the most transparent governor in history” is about as transparent as a painted wall.
- Real - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:02 am:
I applaud the DGA for speaking truth to power unlike Rauner’s candidate Kennedy. Brucie needs a good ol investigation.
- huh - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:04 am:
Come on, you guys. Grandpa is managining Bruce’s investments from the family mansion in Sweden where he was born.
- Keyrock - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:08 am:
Will he be followed by Bruceocchio? Raunocchio?
Or is plain old Pinocchio good enough?
(Maybe he can grow up someday to be a real man who can be in charge.)
- Langhorne - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:09 am:
If he was so casual about these meetings, how many others might there be?
Why is state paid spox bold involved in commenting on personal matters of a “blind” trust and litigation? “It started before he was governor”. Thats pretty thin gruel.
The filings mention letters sent to rauner–not the trust?
- SSL - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:11 am:
I don’t see Rauner having a chance at being reelected, but this topic isn’t going to be the reason. Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation. Work yourself into a lather if you want but seems like wasted energy.
- Sugar Corn - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:11 am:
Rauner has a bad, bad problem telling the truth.
I sense reporters see this.
I hope voters will too.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:12 am:
Wait. One standard for the rich/people in government and another standard for the rest of us?
When did this start? /s
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:14 am:
What’s he thinkin?
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:14 am:
Back in 2015, the Rauner crew threw around the term “blind trust” like a manhole cover, knowing full well that no such structure had been made.
There’s nothing in Rauner’s power-of-attorney arrangement that legally prevents him from directly participating in running his personal financial empire. Clearly, he has done so.
Given that, Rauner needs to reveal his investments in entities that do business with the state and other Illinois governments and his role in guiding those investments. TII, for crying out loud. That’s a bare minimum, with our history.
The public needs to see it in writing; by now, it must be clear to all but the most zealous Rauner cultists that you can’t take the man at his word.
- Fixer - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:16 am:
SSL, it’s the hypocrisy and the pattern of behavior, that are troubling. The governor can’t seem to tell a truth to save his skin. He talks about eliminating waste, fraud, and insider dealings yet continues that same behavior.
It’s not working into a lather. It’s, to borrow Kennedy’s phrase from the other day, “speaking truth to power.”
- Real - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:17 am:
I don’t see Rauner having a chance at being reelected, but this topic isn’t going to be the reason. Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation. Work yourself into a lather if you want but seems like wasted energy
-what topic will be the reason?
- Sugar Corn - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:19 am:
==Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation==
No. He plainly lied to the media and the public about having a blind trust and not being involved in his private money management. *That’s* the issue.
The fact that he was doing this kind of business at his beloved tenth mansion just adds to the brazenness of his deception.
- Huh? - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:21 am:
huh @ 10:04 - Get your own handle.
- Wondering - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:21 am:
The irony. The progressive income tax is a near certainty now. Had Quinn won, no chance in bades.
- Henry Francis - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:23 am:
How much more did Bruce think he was entitled to above and beyond his 300% return? $5M? $20M?
He is apparently laser focused on the details of this personal transaction involving his personal money (and quibble over a minor amout of money for someone who earns $180M passively off his investments during the 1st year of being Guv) - while his DHFS fails to adequately monitor over $7 BILLION of taxpayers’ money and the state runs up record amounts of debt (I know. I know - OPM)
I think it’s all pretty obvious what was going here (and the Guv hiding from it certainly seems to confirm it). So the only question I have is what costume did the Guv wear for this meeting? My guess is biker boy (so he could look tough and try to intimidate the Kipster).
- Moe Berg - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:25 am:
I would be real interested in knowing about his state of Illinois bond holdings. His actions have been driving rates up and as the dispute at issue shows, even a 300% return isn’t enough for Rauner. He’s motivated to have the most money possible and he seems pretty willing to do anything to attain it.
- IllinoisBoi - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:27 am:
“Speaking truth to power”? In Rauner’s case, it’s hiding truth with power.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:29 am:
–Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation.–
Wow, you miss the point even after it’s delivered with a two-by-four to the head.
The governor has maintained that he’s not involved, at all, in his personal investments. He clearly is, and on the taxpayer dime, too.
Now, it’s incumbent upon him to reveal his investments that do business with Illinois governments and his role in directing them.
For example, it’s documented that in the past the governor was heavily invested in companies that received Medicaid funding. A few weeks ago, the governor signed $63 billion in Medicaid contracts.
Get the picture, or is it still fuzzy?
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:29 am:
The two most important things are, I think…
1) Rauner made very clear that his vast wealth would be something he would not know or control its movement, and he would not be doing a business himself, purposely, as governor.
2) Rauner seems to say he had no idea why he was being sued, and what the lawsuit was about.
Both, it turns out, are so wrong, the ethical standards of jyst honesty has been shattered.
The standard Rauner’s Crew wants…
“Just because you weren’t accused of any wrongdoing doesn’t mean you didn’t do anything wrong.”
Rauner fails that test too.
End of story.
But, is it the real end of the story?
- Hawaiian Heat - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:42 am:
Here is an interesting blog piece from May of 2017 from Yves Smith. It’s noted here that there was never a blind trust.
https://macro.economicblogs.org/naked-capitalism/2017/05/smith-governor-bruce-rauners-equity-funds-a-illinois/
- Roman - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:47 am:
The Governor’s Office stepped into a trap in their statement to the Sun-Times and unwittingly confirmed the blind trust is a farce:
== “The Governor is seeking to enforce the terms of that contract.”….Rauner spokeswoman Rachel Bold said in a statement. ==
Wait, the “Governor”? Doesn’t she mean the “blind trust”???
If the blind trust was a real thing and she was going to keep Rauner aligned with his previous public statement, she should tell the media: “The Governor did not file this suit, the blind trust did. You have to contact the attorneys for comment.”
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:48 am:
===But, is it the real end of the story?===
I am waiting for an enterprising young journalist to make the connections of his role as governor and how that has effected his business. I think there will be much more to this story.
- A Jack - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:51 am:
The fifteen million dollar question is did Rauner profit or even attempt to profit from his mismanagement of the budget process. If he did, that puts him several orders of magnitude worse than Blagojevich.
Blagojevich tried to shake down a children’s hospital, while Rauner may been shaking down the entire state and in particular Illinois’ most vulnerable citizens.
The GA needs to look into this when they come in session next week.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:54 am:
===I think there will be much more to this story.===
This will/would be a story that has 80+ hour work week and tons of legwork and cross-checking to not only large transactions, but the timing and possibly, (but I know I don’t know) a mirroring of what the state was doing during the non-budget years, let alone last year.
This is a story that could fizzle out by the Sunday papers.
Doesn’t mean it should, doesn’t mean it’s not a big ethical story.
It does mean how far will this story be chased on the two prongs Rich sees, and if there are branches to the uncovered facts we now know, because of a law suit seemingly based on greed.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:57 am:
The executive mansion construction was just an excuse to tear down the porch and destroy any forensic evidence. (This is snark. Or is it?)
- Arsenal - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 10:59 am:
==Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation.==
Yes. Symbols matter, and those of us in Sangamon County have to hear about how important the Governor’s Mansion is every 4 years. To have it and other state resources used to facilitate personal enrichment is a slap in the face. And it’s exactly what Rauner complains about others doing.
But the bigger issue here is that he lied. He said he wasn’t involved in his personal investments, and it turns out he’s taking meetings on them…on the back porch of the Governor’s mansion…and in Chicago…while the Quincy Veterans Home faces a Legionnaire’s outbreak…
And that he has gone to such great efforts to *hide* these meetings. If they are, as you suggest, no big deal, than why does Rauner hide them? And since he hid these two…are there more? Since he’s actively involved in his investments, while serving as Governor…what is he invested in? Does it involve state finances? And since he also promised to donate any gains he made…did he do that?
There’s so many questions here. It’s one of those classic scandals where you have no idea where it may lead. And it may be no where. But it’s a big deal.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:02 am:
Also… while the DGA and others seem to be questioning the transaction and lawsuit in the context of Rauner being hands off and that being just flat out phony now…
… where are the “Non-Ives” folks on this in Rauner’s ILGOP?
Are they turning a blind eye to Rauner pretending he had a blind eye to his businesses?
- Robert the Bruce - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:02 am:
===The fifteen million dollar question is did Rauner profit or even attempt to profit from his mismanagement of the budget process. If he did, that puts him several orders of magnitude worse than Blagojevich.===
Excellent question. And even if it is purely political, why aren’t either chamber launching a public investigation of this?
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:04 am:
==Would everyone feel better if he walked over to McDonalds and had the conversation.==
Are we talking about the McDonald’s on South Grand? If so, no. Because you never know when a car is going to drive through the lobby. I don’t know about everybody else, but I’d feel better if the governor didn’t tell me his personal finances were in a blind trust he had nothing to do with and then turnaround and directly negotiate personal financial deals on the backporch of the executive mansion.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:05 am:
Here’s one starting point for a good investigator:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4Bi-iePG1O6MTRQa1ZjWWF3QnM/view
This is the Governor’s Statement of Economic Interest filed in 2017 for 2016 activity (Rich posted this on the blog last year).
Among many other items is a listing of a capital gain of “$5000 or more” from Kirkpatrick Capital Partners Fund LLP.
That’s the first place to put the shovel. THe rest looks incomprehensible to me, but then, I’m not an expert in this stuff. Hopefully someone who knows what they are doing will take a deep dive into this.
- hisgirlfriday - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:15 am:
I just keep going back to the fact that this dude lied to an Archbishop.
Of course he”s gonna lie to the media and voters.
- A Jack - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:22 am:
It is better that he didn’t go to Mc Donald’s for this meeting since there wouldn’t have been a public record of the meeting other than the court documents.
Unfortunately we don’t know what meetings occurred outside of state property. What else may have been discussed at those North Shore cocktail parties besides “messenging.” Were Illinois bond prices discussed and ways to drive the bond prices down so that Rauner and his friends could pick them up for a song? We know Rauner had control of his investments which could have included Illinois bonds.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:31 am:
Hisgirlfriday,
Apparently, 10 Hail Marys and a six-piece chicken nugget Happy Meal (with apple slices) is all “Real” and the Rauner admin needs to absolve the gov of his lies.
- theq - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:32 am:
if he told me he what he said was a lie I would probably have to fact check that to be sure
- Barrington - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:33 am:
Hawaiian Heat, thank you for that link. Eye opening! GTR was paid the most fees and is one of the worst performing companies hired to invest Illinois funds. Is Illinois still paying GTR fees with that abysmal records? As the link states, for every $10 Illinois spends, Illinois gets $1. Check my math but that is -1000%
- Rabid - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:35 am:
My govenor is not a venture capitalist, he’s a predatory loan shark wanting more than 3dollars back from his 1 dollar,or seizing your assets
- walker - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:38 am:
You mean we expect our chief Executives in government not to manage their personal businesses, and not to lie continually?
How retro.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:41 am:
Apparently continuing his 3.5 year unbroken streak aof lying about every aspect of life election nite phone calls, biz scams, trump, Cardinal, etc., on and on is now of interest
How about someone with access to Bermuda Papers and other database run his list of holdings just to see what connects.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:50 am:
Someone should ask Erica Harold if, as state’s attorney, she will look into this.
- Jocko - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 11:57 am:
PolitiFact is going to have to re-design their system to determine the extent of falsehood in Bruce’s daily utterances. For example, giving the correct day and/or time counts as a ‘1′.
- don the legnd - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:05 pm:
I’m waiting for Rauner to claim this whole story is ‘fake news”.
If the media keeps questioning him, he will have to pull a Trump or admit he lied.
I don’t see Governor Junk ever admitting to a lie.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:06 pm:
To me the the Governor’s habit of not telling the truth is the most disturbing aspect of the man. And it’s not only that he lies, it’s that his lies are so easily proven to be lies.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:07 pm:
There is a sound clip of a Rauner presser that was in this blog I believe on 11/11/16. It was when Rauner released his 2015 tax return—the first year of Rauner’s term and the year his income more than tripled.
Rauner did a spiel about religion and his generosity and then said he invested public employee pensions (he didn’t call them pensions but retirement savings accounts or some “euphemism” like that). That was a gratuitous statement, not specifically asked for by reporters. I don’t think any reporter asked any follow up questions, and I wonder why Rauner said it. It gave the impression that he made a lot of money that way.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:08 pm:
GovJunk diversion team at work Tey have SquirrellyWherli commenting on pervert Dr.Nasser.
Nice try…didn’t work. Who is netxt? ButzButler with some bicenntenial jibberish?
- Real - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:23 pm:
I’m waiting for Rauner to claim this whole story is ‘fake news”.
-the Chicago Tribune comment section has some commenters saying this story is fake news.
- Chris P. Bacon - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:28 pm:
Rauner’s dishonesty is breathtaking. For one thing, his assets have never been in a blind trust, and Rauner obviously knows that. But the push-over press in this state largely lets him get away with even the most absurd claims so it’s hardly surprising he keeps doing it.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:30 pm:
To the Pritzker update,
They covered it all, it’s a solid statement, a marker they can revisit time and again, and also revisit with a greater vigor if more transactions find the light if day.
It’s good work by that Crew.
- Retired Educator - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:45 pm:
That clicking sound you hear is Madigan Tap Dancing in his office. Rauner can’t have any toes left, he constantly shoots himself in the foot. I have never seen anyone go from crisis to crisis, all of his own manufacture. How can he be anything but the loser in the next election? I can’t imagine any thinking person, would condone his behavior, and cast a vote in his direction.
- Steve Polite - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:50 pm:
Conducting personal business on state property is a violation of the ethics act. A rank and file state employee caught doing this could be subject to discipline up to and including termination.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:52 pm:
===Conducting personal business on state property is a violation of the ethics act.===
As Rich Miller made clear, the residence has different standing.
If you’d like to discuss the ethics of first the promise abc then the symbolism of the location, that’s fair.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:57 pm:
Rauner has apparently found the Blago Bunker. No public schedule since Monday.
I wonder if he’s sitting around in a track suit, watching cartoons all day long.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 12:59 pm:
“What did the Governor know, and when did he not know it?”
Spends over 50 mil to win the Governorship, millions more to get re-elected, and stands to lose it all - by quibbling with a partner he wants to stiff, over an extra four-five he didn’t earn, on a 20-mil profit.
And he claims some kind of special rich man’s amnesia: “I don’t know what’s going on with my money”. “I don’t know who’s in charge of it right now, …some guy, I guess…”
Blows. My. Mind.
- Blue dog dem - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 1:05 pm:
The MOVEon.org endorsement. Should Biss get the nomination, locks up them 2 out 5 union household for Rauner/Ives.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 1:08 pm:
BDD, I’m sure it’s fun to fill the hours imagining that you speak for hundreds of thousands of people that you don’t know.
- Pundent - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 1:11 pm:
=Spends over 50 mil to win the Governorship, millions more to get re-elected, and stands to lose it all - by quibbling with a partner he wants to stiff, over an extra four-five he didn’t earn, on a 20-mil profit.=
If this was a careless one time mistake I’d agree with you. But I personally think it says a lot more about the make-up of Rauner. I suspect that he attributes his success to quibbling over everything and coming out on the winning end. In that sense he probably shares a lot of the same characteristics of our President. I think at this stage it’s not so much about the money involved, its some guiding principle that requires to be right and unwavering. He probably couldn’t stand the idea of getting less than everything he felt entitled to in the Kirkpatrick deal. And he probably also can’t stand the notion that we think we’re entitled to know what his business dealings are. It’s very brazen.
- DuPage - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 1:27 pm:
Nixon: I am not a crook.
Rauner: I am not in charge.
- Retired Educator - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 1:42 pm:
That clicking sound you hear, is Madigan tap Dancing at the Capitol. The Governor constantly makes the job of defeating him easier. How can anyone who thinks, cast a vote for this type of individual. He has cost himself the public trust, and I see no way to get it back in the future. Can anyone say “Wow this guy is really doing a good job”? Come on folks, we are entitled to some level of competence.
- jimk849 - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 1:42 pm:
Rauner can be the ATT guy in the next cable commercial, where the whole room calls him out for fibbing. Or is that fibbin?
- Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 1:59 pm:
Hawaiian Heat, that’s some good stuff. I was always under the impression that the GTCR funds had done very well. Wow, that’s bad.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 2:23 pm:
Chicago Cynic, your earlier impressions are correct. Most of the GTCR funds have been quite successful, doubling investors’ money and providing returns in the high teens/low 20 percent range. They just finished raising a $5.25 billion Fund XII, continuing a trend of raising larger amounts with each new fund.
The article cited by “Hawaiian Heat” is total baloney and was written last year by a short-lived and discredited website.
Google “GTCR Fund Performance” to check my work if you would like.
- don the legend - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 2:47 pm:
Anonymous 12:59 —Spends over 50 mil to win the Governorship, millions more to get re-elected, and stands to lose it all —
He made 180 million in just his first year in office. Perhaps he isn’t “losing it all.”
- Sugar Corn - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 3:10 pm:
Arthur Anderson,
Haven’t heard much of you lately.
How do you feel about Rauner’s lies on this topic? The blind trust and all?
Curious.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 4:09 pm:
Sugar, I think the Governor’s dissembling about the blind trust is disappointing and reprehensible. I just don’t get the guy sometimes, well quite often lately.
- Rabid - Thursday, Jan 25, 18 @ 4:47 pm:
how do you raze the back porch, when it is on the national historical registry. Who approved it