Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Tuesday, Jul 3, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I don’t know if I’ll be back Thursday. Maybe Friday, though. But before I go…

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’ sister has died — nearly three decades after her life-saving kidney transplant helped turn White into a champion of organ donation.

White’s office says Doris Ivy died of natural causes on Friday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She was 85.

White’s interest in organ and tissue donation is a family story that begins in the early 1980s when doctors asked his family to harvest the organs of his brother, who was on life support after suffering a brain aneurism. White’s family knew little about organ donation and declined the request.

Ivy’s 1991 kidney transplant helped spark White and Ivy’s devotion to organ donation and White has dramatically expanded the state’s organ and tissue donation program as secretary of state.

I’d like to express my sincere condolences to Secretary White and his family.

* Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Los Lobos will play us out…

The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting

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Rauner: “I am not anti-union… I’m very pro trade union”

Tuesday, Jul 3, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Gov. Rauner was in Charleston yesterday…

“You know people spin this [Janus] ruling or me as being anti-union, I am not anti-union. I want more union jobs, I want more all jobs in the state of Illinois, union, non-union I want more pay for everybody,” Rauner said. “What I’m against is conflicts of interest.”

* I gave you an excerpt yesterday, but let’s return to my Crain’s Chicago Business column…

“Crystal clear, I am not anti-union,” Gov. Bruce Rauner told WBEZ in 2015 when asked about his stance on public employee unions.

The governor repeated the “I am not anti-union” phrase June 27 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled public employees don’t have to pay unions a dime to receive the benefits from their union-negotiated contracts.

But Rauner’s word is no good on this claim. He has said over and over for years that public employee unions are inherently “corrupt” because they negotiate contracts with politicians and then support or oppose those same politicians during campaigns with contributions he calls “bribes.”

How can he say that and not want to eliminate them?

Rauner decided to run for governor after watching his friend and onetime ally Mayor Rahm Emanuel cave to the Chicago Teachers Union during a 2013 strike. He has repeatedly called AFSCME, the union that represents most state employees, “Afscammy.” One of his first acts as governor was to try to kill off “fair share” fee payments to AFSCME, which were at the heart of the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME case.

Fair share fees, which are lower than full union membership dues, can only be used to implement a union contract and cannot be used for political campaign purposes. But, Rauner said in February when the Supreme Court was hearing arguments on Janus: “One hundred percent of what a government union does is political by nature.”

* Back to the Daily Eastern story…

“I’m very pro trade union and I want to grow more trade union jobs,” Rauner said.

Trade union leaders were the first to jump aboard JB Pritzker’s campaign last year, so I’m certain they would strongly disagree. Rauner wants to undo prevailing wage laws, is opposed to project labor agreements and backs the creation of local “right to work” zones.

…Adding… Good analysis, but we’ll see if it works or not in November…

To be clear, Rauner's attempt to claim he is "pro-union" should put to bed any question over whether Janus is good for him politically.

Unions are popular in IL, Rauner attacked them via Janus, and he is trying to avoid paying the political price.

It won't work.#twill #ilgov

— Illinois Working Together (@IllinoisWorking) July 3, 2018

* Related…

* Congressional Democrats strategize with labor leaders to fight Janus impact

* Post-Janus Landscape: Decision will impact union coffers, membership; more litigation on its way, say lawyers

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*** UPDATED x1 - Pritzker agrees *** McCann wants to be included in debates

Tuesday, Jul 3, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Press release…

Conservative Party candidate Sam McCann and running mate Aaron Merreighn formally joined the race for Illinois Governor today after the deadline for objections to his nominating petitions passed with no objections filed. McCann submitted more than 60,000 signatures, far surpassing the requirement of 25,000. He immediately called for debates to be scheduled.

McCann issued the following statement:

Conservative and Republican voters clearly showed their dissatisfaction with Bruce Rauner during the primary and those same voters put their hope in our campaign during the petition process. After a brief internal review of my petitions, Bruce Rauner’s paid staffers surely saw that attempting to put these petitions’ validity into question would be fruitless.

I am proud to be on the ballot in the General Election. Voters will now have an option to protect them from the Rauner-Madigan liberal agenda that brought us publicly-funded abortions and a sanctuary state. I am ready to lead the charge to rebuild Illinois together.

With Illinois’ future at stake, I call on Bruce Rauner, J.B. Pritzker and Kash Jackson to join me to schedule debates on these and other issues of critical importance to voters across the state.

*** UPDATE *** I’ve asked the Pritzker and Rauner campaigns for a response.

Galia Slayen from the Pritzker campaign…

After Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership, JB will highlight his plans to get Illinois back on track and our campaign welcomes other voices to the stage that know we need change in Illinois.

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*** UPDATED x2 *** Rauner heads to Champaign-Urbana

Tuesday, Jul 3, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Part of Gov. Rauner’s official schedule for today…

What: Gov. Rauner joined by local legislators, educational and business leaders visits three Champaign-Urbana businesses
Where: Wolfram Research, 100 Trade Center Drive, Champaign

Time: 1:30 p.m.

Granular, 1904 S. First St., Suite 301, Champaign
Time: 2:00 p.m.

A&R Mechanical Contractors, 711 E. Kettering Park Drive, Urbana
Time: 2:30 p.m

Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Note: Media availability follows final tour stop at A&R Mechanical Contractors

* Pritzker campaign…

Rauner Kicks Off Champaign-Urbana Clean Up Tour

After disparaging the entire Champaign-Urbana area, Bruce Rauner is attempting to clean up his trash talk with a tour through the two cities.

The C-U community was not pleased when Rauner said, “it’s very hard to keep a company of more than six people there. There’s no convenient transportation, not much of a workforce. It’s very hard.” It spurred Republicans, Democrats, and nonpartisan community members to clap back in unison against Rauner’s disrespectful badmouthing of the region.

“Bruce Rauner’s clean up tour through Champaign-Urbana only comes after widespread, bipartisan backlash taught this failed governor a lesson,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “While trashing a community may come natural to Illinois’ bad-mouther-in-chief, our families are tired of a failed leader who would rather tear communities down than move this state forward.”

*** UPDATE 1 *** His tour has begun. “It’s very hard to keep a company of more than six people there… not much of a workforce”…

A representative from Wolfram Research tells @GovRauner in a presentation “we do have a global workforce” and “we never have a problem recruiting or hiring people to move here.” pic.twitter.com/azwUzZa285

— Mark Maxwell (@WCIA3Mark) July 3, 2018

* “There’s no convenient transportation”…

Now riding @rideMTD with Chief Operating Officer Andrew Johnson to our next destination. Thank you @GovRauner for joining us on this ride. pic.twitter.com/Q5vQelQ2ET

— CCChamber (@ccountychamber) July 3, 2018

He looks so happy to be there.

*** UPDATE 2 *** That’s quite the apology gift…

On transportation, @GovRauner vows to start serious talks about privately funded high speed rail projects to and from Champaign-Urbana. pic.twitter.com/8rs7ONy0ST

— Mark Maxwell (@WCIA3Mark) July 3, 2018

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*** UPDATED x1 *** Super PAC goes up with new ads blasting Pritzker on “toilet” issue

Tuesday, Jul 3, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* WGN TV…

Governor Bruce Rauner’s campaign for re-election is expected to get a boost this week from a Super PAC formerly headed by wealthy Chicago businessman and Illinois campaign finance chair of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential run, Ron Gidwitz.

On Tuesday, Economic Freedom Alliance is set to begin running television ads attacking Rauner’s opponent, Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker. Sources tell WGN the advertising campaign will total more than half a million dollars.

Sources told me a different spending number, which I passed on to subscribers, so we’ll see.

* There are actually three ads. The first one is a 30-second spot…

* Here’s one of the 15-second ads…

* And this 15-second spot appears to also be running on social media because it has 1,639 YouTube views as of 9 o’clock this morning…

Good spots.

*** UPDATE *** The Illinois Manufacturers Association just moved $900,000 into the Economic Freedom Alliance’s PAC and the PAC just filed a B-1 showing it was spending $895,000 on TV and digital ads.