* “This is the reason I am running,” Bruce Rauner told a Springfield business crowd last year…

“The government union bosses, they take our tax dollars, they go to the politicians and say, ‘Mr. Governor or Mr. Speaker, give me a big pension for my workers and I’ll give you ten million dollars for your reelection. Give me more pay for my workers, I’ll give you $20 million for your reelection. Give me free healthcare for my workers off the backs of the taxpayers, I’ll give you another $10 million for your reelection, I’ll give you free campaign workers for your reelection.’ […]

“You won’t hear the politicians talk about this. You won’t. The Democrats don’t talk about it because that’s where Madigan gets all his money or his power. He’ll never talk about it. And you’ll never hear the Republicans talk about it either because a lot of them get that money, too.”

* Madigan gets “all his money” from government union bosses? Let’s take a quick look…

* Madigan controls three campaign committees. Democratic Majority has received just one AFSCME contribution of $15K, but that was over three years ago.

* The last time Madigan’s Democratic Party of Illinois committee received AFSCME money was October of 2011, and that was only $5,000.

* And the last time Friends of Michael J Madigan received any AFSCME money was December of 2009 - more than four years ago.

Madigan has received a grand total of $821,200 from AFSCME, but that was since August of 1994, which works out to about $42K a year. Madigan raised more than that this month, including $21,100 from Stand for Children Illinois, which is not exactly a favorite of the teachers unions.

* And the Republicans? As I’ve said here many times before, Republican legislators who vote with AFSCME and the teachers don’t do that because they’ve sold their souls. They vote their districts, or their ideology. Rauner has a different ideology, which includes assuming the worst of anyone who disagrees with him.

He’s gonna be a dangerous governor, that one.