* Some in the media have made a big deal out of the unknown location of Gov. Rauner during the holiday. From the AP on December 24th…
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner left the country for the holidays, but his staff won’t say where he went or even why they don’t want to disclose his whereabouts. […]
David Melton, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, called it “a little odd” for a chief executive who’s away for an extended period.
“I don’t think he’s reconciled himself to the fact he’s a public figure at this point, with all the downsides that may come with that,” Melton said.
There may be valid reasons for not releasing information, whether it’s security concerns or family members’ privacy, Melton said.
It’s also possible Rauner and his staff are concerned about the optics of the governor — who owns multiple homes, though all are in the U.S. — vacationing in a foreign country when Illinois is in the midst of a budget crisis that has hit the state’s poorest residents particularly hard.
Nothing like a little subjective editorializing from the AP. They even used the “optics” word like pros and everything.
* But we now have some more info about why his office was so tight-lipped. First, his general location…
(T)he governor was in fact in Europe with his family on vacation over winter break. He paid for the trip himself and flew commercially… [and] returned early from a planned two-week vacation to respond to deadly flooding in southern Illinois.
* And…
The governor says the reason for the secrecy is that two of his kids are currently living overseas.
“And we wanted to spend some of the Christmas holiday time with them. When they return, and they’ll be back soon, we’ll discuss where they are,” Rauner said. “Our children are private — they are not public officials — and their safety and their privacy is important to my wife and me. So while they’re there, we’re not discussing where they are; when they come back, I’ll talk about it.”
Maybe the governor’s office should’ve talked privately with reporters last month before this story kinda blew up on them.
*** UPDATE 1 *** I’m told the Rauner press shop did speak to at least three reporters off the record about what was really going on. If true, then some reporters were apparently dishonest about what they wrote.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Not sure what this means, but if the prize winner was told about the reasons for keeping the secret then the prize winner lied in her story…
This from a person who sends a copied and pasted e-mail to me every morning. Again, not sure what this is supposed to mean, except that she was beating the drum loudly almost every day about the governor’s whereabouts, and I really didn’t care all that much. We don’t have to always agree.
*** UPDATE 3 *** The last time I checked, the Sahara was not in Europe…
*** UPDATE 4 *** But Spain sure is…
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* But, look, he’s not the president. He’s not our daddy. He’s not even our big brother. I don’t think this is a huge deal, but he certainly has made a troubling habit of secrecy since pledging transparency during the campaign…
The Illinois attorney general has ruled that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office has withheld too much information on his daily appointment calendars from taxpayers.
The state’s public access counselor issued an opinion in response to an appeal under the Freedom of Information Act by The Associated Press. Public access attorney Joshua Jones says the AP correctly argues that Rauner’s staff improperly used exemptions under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act to keep his whereabouts and activities secret.
Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly did not comment because the issue is in court. The Illinois Times filed a lawsuit over the Rauner calendar in September.
Jones dismissed the Rauner administration argument that the calendars are not even public records.
That was quite a timely ruling.
