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Rauner pledges to “hang every candidate on the Democratic ticket with Mike Madigan around their neck”

Monday, Mar 5, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Gov. Rauner spoke at Sunday’s Effingham County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner and told the party faithful about how he envisions the fall campaign…

You guys know I went to war to get term limits. Nobody should stay in office more than about 8 years. That’s plenty of time. George Washington could’ve been king, and he only served for 8 years because he knew America should be a place for freedom and you should be a public servant and then leave. … We collected half a million signatures to get term limits on the ballot. Madigan sued me and he blocked it in the state courts, with the judges that he elects. …. But I never give up and I never give in.

We are now going to run a pledge campaign. Pledge campaign. We’re going to ask every candidate in the General Assembly statewide to sign a pledge, sign a promise to you as the people of Illinois. And that pledge says two things. Number one: “I promise you that I will vote to put term limits on the ballot so the people of Illinois can vote term limits up or down.” And number two: “I promise you that I will vote for somebody, anybody other than Mike Madigan for speaker after 35 years.”

And when the Democrats refuse to sign that pledge, we’re gonna use it against them and we’re gonna prove that they’re really working for Madigan and the machine, rather than the people of central Illinois and the people of southern Illinois. And we’re going to beat them and that’s how we are going to pick up nine seats in the General Assembly this year. This is an exciting time.

Now, look, this election cycle is going to be tough. A new president’s party has a hard time in the midterms. That’s just true, even look back 50 years. It doesn’t matter whether D or R.

But you know why we’re going to win and why I’m all-in to win? No state has a guy as corrosive and as corrupt and as destructive as Mike Madigan. And we are going to hang every candidate on the Democratic ticket with Mike Madigan around their neck and we’re going to take them down. And we’re going to beat ‘em. The people of Illinois want Madigan gone almost as much as Republicans do.

* Gov. Rauner also told the story of his “single most emotional moment of my being governor”…

It was last year, I was shopping at a store in Springfield and an elderly woman came up to me. Slowly, she couldn’t move very, very fast. She was, she was up there in years. She slowly came up to me in the store and she grabbed me by the by the [inaudible], both hands on my left arm. And then she looked up at me. And then she started to tear up. She started to cry a little bit and I said ‘Goodness, what happened, what’s wrong here? Are you hurt? Can I, how can I help you?’ And she said, she said, ‘Governor, you’re our last hope. Don’t give up.’ And I teared up, and I gave her a hug. And I said, ‘I will never give up and it’s an honor for me to work for you.’

We will never give in. We are going to make Illinois great again. Great, proud strong state. The greatest state in the greatest nation on Earth. On to victory in November for Republicans!

…Adding… From last June…

You know, I had a woman, an elderly woman, come up to me last month. She couldn’t move very well, but she came up, she grabbed me by the arm. She looked me in the eyes. She teared up, and she said, “Governor, you’re our last hope. Don’t give up,” and she said, “And I’m a Democrat, and many of my friends are Democrats. We know you’re doing the right thing.” I get that every day.

Every day he gets that. Every. Day.

…Adding… Pritzker campaign…

With Donald Trump polling ahead of Bruce Rauner in Illinois, the failed governor is borrowing the president’s slogan to keep Republicans from fleeing to his primary opponent Jeanne Ives as election day nears.

“We are going to make Illinois great again,” Rauner proudly declared at an Effingham County Republican dinner yesterday where Ives was present. While Rauner has long been afraid to utter Donald Trump’s name, his insurgent primary opponent’s campaign has left him with no choice but to cozy up to this bigoted president.

“Bruce Rauner is embracing Donald Trump as he desperately clings to the Republican nomination with Jeanne Ives nipping at his heels,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “This is a failed governor, fending off challenges left and right as Illinoisans prepare to hold him accountable for his damage to this state.”

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“We got one Democrat to stay in New York at the US Open during the vote override”

Monday, Mar 5, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Wall St. Journal…

In 2015, Mr. Rauner says, public-employee unions complained to Mr. Madigan that the new governor was too stubborn a negotiator. The speaker pushed through a bill to strip the governor of his authority in contract negotiations in favor of a “labor arbitrator”—an attempt, Mr. Rauner says, to “take away my most fundamental right as governor to represent taxpayers.”

Mr. Rauner vetoed the legislation. In Illinois it takes three-fifths of each legislative chamber to override a veto, and Democrats had the requisite supermajorities. Yet the House sustained Mr. Rauner’s veto. “I got one Democrat,” he says. “Boy, did we work our tails off. We got one Democrat to stay in New York at the U.S. Open during the vote override.”

There is evidence that Dunkin may have gone to the US open during that vote, so the governor could be telling the truth. But Gov. Rauner also told some of his usual whoppers to the paper’s editorial board, so you’re guess is as good as mine.

…Adding… From comments…

HOW exactly did he get that Dem to stay in New York? That’s a much more interesting question.

Agreed.

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*** UPDATED x1 - Proft responds to Trib item *** Rauner blasts Ives, who doesn’t have the cash to fight back

Monday, Mar 5, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Tribune profiles the Republican primary for governor…

For his part, Rauner might have been slow to take Ives’ candidacy seriously, but once the money started pouring into her campaign, the governor quickly pivoted to an offensive strategy.

He started airing TV ads and sending out mailers that labeled Ives “Madigan’s Favorite Republican,” pointing to less than $7,000 in campaign contributions she’d received from a Madigan-allied labor union, and comments she’d made touting Madigan’s support for some of her bills.

The mailers have been effective in some parts of the state, where voters have started to associate Ives with the unpopular speaker, an Ives campaign worker said.

Ives also spent money early to try to build name recognition among voters, leaving her with less for the stretch run. In an email fundraising pitch to supporters, Ives said she needs to raise $10 million by election day to get her message out in TV ads and for get-out-the-vote operations.

* And speaking of the Madigan angle, the BGA and Politifact have weighed in…

Rauner’s campaign ad said: “Who’s really behind Jeanne Ives’ campaign for governor? Mike Madigan’s corrupt insider machine. They’ve bankrolled her campaign with thousands in shady labor union cash, turning Ives into another Madigan lackey.”

A political committee that has supported Michael Madigan and a number of other politicians of both parties gave money to Jeanne Ives. And records show the contributions to Ives total $6,900, a far cry from the $2.5 million she has received from a conservative businessman who once was a major donor to Rauner.

Ives was once a loyal supporter of Rauner in the Illinois House, but broke with the governor last year because she claimed he had become too liberal on social issues. Central to her complaint was Rauner’s signing of abortion rights and immigrant rights legislation that Ives opposed and Madigan backed.

That is hardly a portrait of a Madigan lackey. Indeed, it is the opposite.

Rauner campaign claims about Ives and Madigan turn credibility and rational argument inside out. That is why we give them our lowest possible credibility rating, Pants On Fire!

The latest Rauner ad is here.

But does she have the money to fight back? It doesn’t appear so.

* Pearson…

Republican state Rep. Jeanne Ives’ campaign said Sunday it is up with a new TV ad that compares Gov. Rauner to former Democratic President Barack Obama.

“Bruce Rauner lies so much he reminds us of another Chicago politician,” a narrator says. The ad then cuts to a June 15, 2009, clip of Obama talking about a concept of the Affordable Care Act that didn’t happen. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period,” Obama says.

It’s unclear how widespread Ives’ ad will appear. No new advertising contracts for Ives have been posted by Chicago TV stations or cable since last month. [Emphasis added.]

Everybody wants to write about the hard-fought campaign as if the two candidates had equal access to messaging, but Pearson just dumped a lake’s worth of cold water on those hot takes. Ives has burned through her cash and can’t place new ads. That’s the real story here now.

I suppose the Ives campaign believes voters will read her new campaign book. She spent big bucks on that mailer, but I cannot imagine that it’ll move many numbers.

The “ad” is here, the transcript is here.

*** UPDATE *** Dan Proft pushes back against Pearson’s report. Here’s the printable part…

We had Quincy vets home all last week plus radio statewide. We’re on statewide nets plus radio this week with the “Neither Should You” spot

…Adding… More from Proft…

$300K buy delivering 560 TRPs in Chicago and another 1400 TRPs outside Chicago DMA, networks. This doesn’t include radio which is also up statewide. It may not be Rauner scale but that’s a real buy.

* Related…

* Rauner and Ives appear in Altamont, attend Lincoln Day Dinner: Rauner declined questions before leaving the dinner Sunday. In an emailed statement, Will Allison, a spokesman for Rauner’s campaign, responded to Ives’ comments, saying, “Rep. Ives is simply unelectable. She is refusing to stand up to Mike Madigan and won’t commit to rolling back his massive income tax hike. Governor Rauner has a plan to cut taxes and reform government, and that’s why he will win this primary and defeat JB Pritzker in November.”

* Ives brings ‘truth tour’ to Q-C: “It was not a hard choice getting in this race. It was hard for some of my supporters, knowing the daunting task going up against a guy who’s got millions of dollars, $100 million worth of name (recognition) behind him and three years of incumbency. How do you take a guy like this out?”

* Jeanne Ives’ challenge forces Gov. Bruce Rauner to keep eyes on GOP primary

* Rauner, Ives face off in Republican gubernatorial primary

* Arriving in ILGOP mailboxes statewide: The Governor You Don’t Know

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