* Let’s circle back to yesterday’s press conference where Democrats blasted the governor and his former deputy chief of staff Darlene Senger…
In an email dated December 13, 2017 to Governor Bruce Rauner’s top staffers, Republican candidate for comptroller Darlene Senger wrote, “We can maybe tie this back to Duckworth.” […]
Mendoza also called out the Rauner administration over the lack of any response to the email.
“There wasn’t a single member of the governor’s leadership team who responded back saying something along the lines of ‘that is so highly inappropriate, like stop right there,’ Mendoza said.
The Rauner administration said there was no need to respond because Senger’s statement was a single, random suggestion.
They may not have responded because this stuff is FOIA-able, so getting into an online back-and-forth isn’t ever advisable. Also, Senger had her detractors on staff. They may not have wanted to engage.
* Notice, though, that there are no quotation marks in the excerpt’s last sentence. I tried to get the Rauner administration to tell me exactly what was said, but couldn’t. They referred me back to yesterday’s statement, which didn’t mention the reason nobody responded to Senger.
The reporter told me that the line about “no need to respond” was from a background conversation.
* The Pritzker campaign sent me this earlier today, but I didn’t want to run it until after I’d tracked everyone down…
So the Rauner administration suggested blaming the tragic deaths of 13 Veterans and spouses on one of our state’s greatest heroes, but it’s ok because they only did it once?
Ouch.
* Onward. From the SJ-R…
Thumbs down: To former Deputy Governor Darlene Singer for putting politics first as the severity of repeated Legionnaires disease outbreak at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy became a public issue.
On Dec. 12, WBEZ 91.5 Chicago published the first story in an investigation that raised serious questions about how the administration of Gov. Bruce Rauner responded to the outbreak and notified those affected and the public about what became a public health epidemic. The next day, Senger suggested tying the outbreak to U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who ran the agency that oversees the Quincy home from 2006-2009. The first outbreak at the Quincy home was in 2015.
We know in politics there is always a desire to blame somebody when something has gone wrong. And if more could have been done to prevent the three consecutive years of outbreaks from happening, someone should be held accountable.
But to make placing blame the priority — instead of fixing the problem and helping the residents at Quincy — is unconscionable. Veterans who fought for our country don’t need to be politicized. The residents of that facility need a healthy, safe place to life.
* And one more from the Pritzker campaign…
Bruce Rauner lied again. The word ‘immediate’ can have many definitions — ‘occurring or accomplished without delay; instant’ or ‘following or preceding without a lapse of time’ — but none describe Rauner’s response to the Legionnaires’ crisis.
RAUNER’S LIE:
Yesterday, the Rauner campaign claimed “Governor Rauner took immediate action to address the problems at Quincy.”
THE TRUTH:
Rauner proposed his Quincy plan three years after the first deadly outbreak and almost six months after widespread media and legislative investigations began.
A disease expert told WBEZ: “I think it’s really inexcusable…It takes you six days from seeing an epidemic to tell people that you’re seeing an epidemic? That’s six days that you’ve allowed that disease to spread in a manner that probably wouldn’t have happened if you would have known earlier because people would have been taking action. People would have been asking questions. If you know there is an epidemic, you need to tell people immediately.”
“There’s nothing ‘immediate’ about waiting six days to notify the public about a Legionnaires’ outbreak that took 12 lives in 2015 and another in 2017,” said Pritzker campaign spokesman Jason Rubin. “This was and continues to be an unconscionable failure.”
* They also sent a media coverage roundup. They got a lot of pretty strong stories yesterday. TV stations WIFR, WGEM, KHQA, WFLD, WBBM, WMAQ, WLS, WGN, WICS/WRSP, WPSD, WQAD, WHOI/WEEK and WAND all aired pieces with video of the event. It was plastered across the front page of today’s Sun-Times (story is here) and the Tribune gave it a lot of space as well. The campaign also sent clips from radio stations WLS AM, WBBM Newsradio and WMAY.
It was, in other words, a solid hit.
- wordslinger - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:02 pm:
–The Rauner administration said there was no need to respond because Senger’s statement was a single, random suggestion.–
In a court of law, they’d call that “Qui tacet consentire videtur.”
- 360 Degree TurnAround - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:09 pm:
Hopefully some veterans groups will continue to highlight this issue.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:14 pm:
When it mattered, Darlene Senger worries more about blaming a disabled veteran no longer with the Agency than the veterans still at risk.
An utter lack of character.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:29 pm:
One member of the Rauner administration randomly says Bruce, as a white man, will have nothing more to say and ends out of a job.
Just sayin’
- Flat Bed Ford - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:41 pm:
Let’s not pretend that Senator Duckworth is free from sin here. Isn’t she still being sued for her gross mismanagement of the VA under Blago?
- Anonymous - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:44 pm:
Yes, please keep blaming Tammy Duckworth. I hope Bruce and Darlene follow your lead and double down. Brilliant approach.
- wordslinger - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:46 pm:
–Let’s not pretend that Senator Duckworth is free from sin here.–
Explain what you mean.
–Isn’t she still being sued for her gross mismanagement of the VA under Blago?–
If that’s meant to support your previous statement, shouldn’t you back it up?
- Demoralized - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 2:53 pm:
This Administration has made a sport out of blaming everyone else but themselves.
==Let’s not pretend that Senator Duckworth is free from sin here.==
She wasn’t in charge when these people were dying.
==Isn’t she still being sued for her gross mismanagement of the VA under Blago?==
What does that have to do with this?
Are some of you incapable of placing any blame on the Governor for anything? It’s just getting ridiculous.
- Lincoln Lad - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:17 pm:
When Senger was my state rep, three constituent emails from me, sent to her went unanswered. Not even a thank you for your message. Nothing!
Looking back, I now think it was probably Tammy Duckworth’s fault.
- DuPage Bard - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:17 pm:
Should just disavow the comment as totally off base and say she was spoken to privately about it.
Then spin into your desire to work with Senator Duckworth to secure the federal funding needed.
- Flat Bed Ford - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:19 pm:
One, I never said that the Governor wasn’t to blame.
Two, I asked a question. Are all the lawsuits filed against Duckworth during her time running the VA settled?
Three, Build a new damn building already. It’s pretty disgusting how Illinois treats its vets under ANY of the past or current administrations.
- illini - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:21 pm:
It would have been great if downstate media had picked up on this story. But I guess they have other priorities.
- Long Time R - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:23 pm:
They should ask Senger to resign from ticket and replace her with Jeanne Ives. Now a race between Mendoza and Ives would be like a real life sitcom. It would also get those hard core zealots back into the scheme of things
- Joe M - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:23 pm:
I guess Senger missed the memo where the Rauner policy is to blame Madigan for everything.
- Rich Miller - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:24 pm:
=== ask Senger to resign from ticket and replace her with Jeanne Ives===
I think the governor would prefer Mendoza to Ives and that’s really saying something.
- Try-4-Truth - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:43 pm:
==== - Rich Miller - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:24 pm:
=== ask Senger to resign from ticket and replace her with Jeanne Ives===
I think the governor would prefer Mendoza to Ives and that’s really saying something.
====
You are probably correct… But, it’d be fun. I’ll hope for it just for the entertainment value.
- Cubs in '16 - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:47 pm:
===I think the governor would prefer Mendoza to Ives and that’s really saying something.===
Whoa, whoa. What? Did I miss a blog post about this or is it something only subscribers are privy to?
- Cubs in '16 - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:52 pm:
Disregard my previous post. I was thinking of Munger instead of Ives. Been a long week…
- Morty - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 3:53 pm:
-no need to respond because Senger’s statement was a single, random suggestion.
3 1/2 years in and it’s still amateur hour. Isn’t there anyone working in the administration who can craft an intelligent response to anything?
- @misterjayem - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 4:00 pm:
“Bruce Rauner lied again.”
When possible, Pritzker should always lead with that.
And it will always be possible.
– MrJM
- Jackie - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 4:26 pm:
==”…blaming a disabled veteran…”==
How is being disabled or a veteran relevant to Duckworth’s performance as head of the agency?
An observer could agree with each and every one of your criticisms of this Governor and still be troubled by the contention that no testing for Legionnaire’s was done prior to 2015, particularly at times where there were significant spikes in what was assumed to be pneumonia.
Does the latter not warrant attention just because Duckworth has since moved to a new position (that she secured, in part, by touting her tenure at IDVA)?
==…no longer with the Agency…==
Oh. That answers that.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 4, 18 @ 4:29 pm:
===How is being disabled or a veteran relevant to Duckworth’s performance as head of the agency?===
The optics of first blaming an actual veteran for the tragedy, and then add to that, a disabled veteran, who has had time in care homes, hospitals, and top it off… she wasn’t there when those who should have tried to do better… didn’t