* Gov. Bruce Rauner held a press conference today in Mt. Vernon…

Reporter: How involved do you plan to be in local elections, specifically local Republican elections in southern Illinois?

Rauner: Um, I’m not really very involved. I’m really, my focus is really on the government and good policy and administering… That’s really where I’m spending my time. I’m really not too involved in races.

* Apparently, writing big checks doesn’t take too much time…

And reminder, the Governor has transferred over $11 million to the Illinois Republican Party this cycle. https://t.co/U9ht6Tu9H3

— IL Election Data (@ILElectionData) August 15, 2016

This latest A-1 won't show up here until tomorrow but that's now almost $6.4M to HRO. https://t.co/ZqBXimeFdu https://t.co/GPRDCxbeot

— IL Election Data (@ILElectionData) August 16, 2016

* Raw audio…

Click to listen

…Adding… Here’s the latest southern Illinois ad…

…Adding More… For crying out loud, he just said this on Wednesday…

Gov. Bruce Rauner promised today that Republicans would outspend Democrats this fall in a GOP effort to reclaim the Illinois General Assembly.

“This year, we’re going to go toe-to-toe with them,” Rauner told party county chairmen at an event starting the Illinois Republican Party Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair. Rauner said Democrats have far outspent the GOP in recent elections, but “we’re going to do better than they do. You’ll see the biggest ground game ever for legislative races in Illinois.”

Sheesh.

…Adding Still More… Greg Hinz asks…

But is it a good idea to have one guy utterly dominating a party’s finances? Expect to hear more discussion on that as the election season moves on.