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Memory lane

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* October 17, 2014, just days before the November election…

“Pushing any specific labor regulation is not my priority at all,” Rauner said.

* Brian Mackey takes a look at this quote and more in his story: Governor’s Top Priorities? Message, Message, Message…

In an interview, my public radio colleague Amanda Vinicky asked Rauner when he changed his mind about that. Rauner pointed to early campaign statements: “We talked about it all through. Now, I don’t remember a particular timing of emphasis. Obviously there a lot of issues to talk about.”

From a politician as disciplined about adhering to his talking points as Rauner, that answer required a bit too much credulity. That’s particularly true because the “timing of emphasis” was so clear: Before he won the Republican primary, Rauner was rabidly anti-union in his rhetoric, so frequently villifying “government union bosses” that his repetition of the phrase approached the realm of farce. Then, after he won the primary, Rauner was virtually silent on the subject until after the general election. You say timing of emphasis, I say obfuscation, let’s call the whole thing off.

Go read the whole thing.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 11:54 am

Comments

The take from this is that Rauner is a perfect politician. Says one thing to get elected and another once he is elected.

This is not a surprise to many of us who follow this blog.

Comment by Norseman Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:05 pm
Too late to call the whole thing off. Ruiner got elected. As other have said, elections have consequences.

Comment by Huh? Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:06 pm
Sure looks and sounds like a “career politician.”

Comment by walker Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:09 pm
“Says one thing to get elected and another once he is elected.”

The distinction with Rauner is that he said two vastly different things — primary vs. general — to get elected.

Fortunately for him, there were plenty of voters and editorial boards who didn’t notice or didn’t care.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:10 pm
Here is where I have zero… zero sympathy for the Unions who continually dropped the ball.

If 2 out of every ID’d Union household voter voted for Rauner as the exit poll indicated, they have no one, no-body, to blame but themselves.

Ok.

That all said, and Rauner fooled you along with Illinois, “what are you prepared to do?”

“What are you prepared to DO?”

Rauner is going to spend $20 million in state House and Senate races. Are you prepared to go into the precincts? Are you prepared to get into the block, street, household micro of campaigns?

Are you… prepared to educate everyone YOU know… about Rauner?

“What are you prepared to do?”… Now that your earlier failure led you to this new reality.

I’ve never seen a $5 bill, a $20, a $100 bill cast a ballot. People cast ballots. If the failure to educate, even after 2014 isn’t ebough to make a credible case to work both primaries and the general elections, then you learned… zero.

Get your hard hat, lunch pail, educate yourselves and those you run into in the meantime.

Go to work.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:13 pm
To clarify… 2 of 5 ID’d Union household voters, 40% of that subgroup, voted for Bruce Rauner.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:14 pm
If Rauner had proposed his current anti-union demands before the general election, the outcome may have been different.

For a guy who didn’t care whether he was liked, now he sure cares whether he’s liked.

Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:17 pm
Didnt take him long to achieve zero credibility

Comment by foster brooks Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:19 pm
All these articles which are being written in the last day or so, need to be shared on social media.

Comment by cdog Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:20 pm
I’ve been surprised how many otherwise detail oriented people have completely forgotten that Rauner’s lack of specifics on even a single policy point in the run-up to the General eventually became one of the primary stories of the election. Since January, the complete reversal in the new Governor’s tone and focus has gotten the same pass, with only an occasional complaint about only reading prepared statements off a page and not taking any questions at events. If nothing else, is there any way to get Charles Thomas to read this?

Comment by Jeeves the Cat Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:21 pm
OW — How many of them do you think would vote for him? Just curious.

Comment by kimocat Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:21 pm
- kimocat -

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/7/rauner-appealed-to-independents-some-democrats/?page=all

“UNION VOTE

Organized labor spent millions on ads attacking Rauner and in donations to Quinn. But on Election Day, many union members and their families still cast their ballots for Rauner.

Thirty-two percent of voters were from union households. Quinn got 58 percent of their votes, compared with 41 percent for Rauner.”

Unions have no one to blame but themselves.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:27 pm
pshah…left-wing liberal media bias. And an NPR station at that. /sarcasm

Comment by Skeptic Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:27 pm
OW — I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just curious how much buyer’ remorse might be out there among union households now. (Not saying it wasn’t their fault.)

Comment by kimocat Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:30 pm
Just wondering - OW do we know how many of those Union Households that voted for Rauner were teachers? My wife is a teacher and knows the score but the majority of her coworkers were, and are, clueless!

Comment by Triple fat Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:30 pm
- kimocat -,

We’ll find out in March and November of 2016, a Presidential year no less, and if the Unions, and their memberships, are serious… or not.

- Triple fat -,

I don’t work for AP or did any of the polling for the article. The fact 2 of 5 Union household voters went Rauner, does it really matter who was worse or better?

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:37 pm
He followed the Scott Walker playbook. Before his frst election, Walker didn’t talk about eliminating collective bargaining either.

Comment by nona Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:39 pm
Look, here’s the deal.
Madigan, Cullerton, and Quinn crusaded to take my teachers pension in violation of the constitution they swore to defend.
Right on the heels of the creation of Tier II that shafts my younger IEA brothers and sisters.
Right on the heels of SB7 that allows the firing of teachers who have worked years and spent their own dollars chasing masters degrees and college hours to work their way up to a livable wage, under the cover of not meeting constantly changing evaluation standards, including student test scores. Yes, our union leadership let us down. And yes, we really need to run our own candidates, because when Quinn announced he was put on earth to ‘reform’ my pension he lost my vote.
My governor choice was left blank.
Would I change that now that the real Bruce Rauner has shown up? Yes, but I suspect many of us wanted someone to know they couldn’t take our votes for granted without standing up for our interests. they got the endorsement of our IEA leaders, but they lost the hearts and minds of the workers.

Comment by Leading InDecatur Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:51 pm
Rauner cannot expect to believe that lying during the campaign won’t cost him permanently. He might have gotten the job with lies, but citizens who are lied to won’t support him.

His poll numbers reflect this, as well.

He has quickly, and permanently, severed a large percentage of his voter base. His policy failures, his RTW debacles, his continuing flop within our state are all reflective of his fall from approval by the very citizens who voted for him.

It can be understood why so many Rauner critics believe he is a one-term governor. If he believed that he would win back voters who would not have voted him into office, he probably thinks he still has time for the state economy to rebound to prove him right, to win them back.

I don’t believe our state economy will rebound significantly before his reelection. Illinois benefits later during national upswings in the economy, and there are no upswings nationally projected before 2020.

That will be the start of the ebbing of the Boomer Retirement Era. It also gives the Grim Reaper another four years to take out a few million more retirees.

He lied his way into office, but he won’t win back the voters who were lied to. He is a goner by 2018 unless he gets some kind of economic miracle.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:51 pm
- Leading InDecatur -,

Welp, you sure showed them…

Now, “What are you prepared to DO?”

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:54 pm
TeamBungle had multiple labor positions, but the bulk of the attacks seemed confined to public employees and some non public employee unions thought they were o.k.
They were fooled but are now united — a task labor could do on their own . Hattip to the Bobblehead.

Comment by Anonin' Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 12:58 pm
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
Scottish author & novelist (1771 - 1832)

Comment by Minnow Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 1:11 pm
Oswego Willy
After next week I’ll be finished with this summers professional development and will finish up the online class I’ve been working on in the evening for the past three weeks. I’ll take a week vacation, then start going into school to get my classroom prepared. School starts the week after that and I’ll be teaching everyday and that won’t leave much time for other things.
I depend on those I vote for to protect me from people who hire people to find huge stack of cash in places like the TRS, and convince the voters that it doesn’t belong to those of us who have made 9% contributions every payday. My job is to focus on the students I teach, and provide the opportunities for them to master the curricula the state and local school board believe will make them good citizens and workers. I’ve got to trust somebody to watch my back as I do that, because I don’t have time to anticipate the next legal attack on my pension or profession. Those are mutually exclusive, full time jobs.
I’d much rather pour myself into teaching. So, I’m asking, seriously and respectfully, for your suggestions for what it is you think I should DO?
Knock on doors as I have for the last three failed referenda? Read blogs like this one to try to educate myself to know how to cast my vote? What should I add to that?

Comment by Leading InDecatur Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 1:26 pm
Oswego Wiily:
[welp, you sure showed them]

I haven’t heard that acknowledged, but I hope so, because the Democratic Party needs to be the Democratic Party. It was getting hard to tell the difference for a while there, but it seems clearer now.

Comment by Leading InDecatur Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 1:45 pm
- Leading InDecatur -

Your teaching of the Democratic Party, is really about Unions coming back to Democrats after learning your own lesson.

Irony.

To your question,

To the Unions advantage now is that Rauner is so polarizing, if you (personally) or you (collectively) can’t convince half of that 40% that voted Rauner to come “home”, pack up and give it up.

You are doing all you can, today. It’s up to the collective Unions, all Unions to decide to speak with one voice for the first time, in a long time, and do it months and months earlier.

Months earlier.

It’s up to the locals, the BAs, the Leadership, to work under one premise, “Any vote for a Rauner candidate, is a vote against all of us.”

Can you all do it?

I give you all, ironically, a 2 in 5 shot. I’m being generous too.

March and November, 2016, critical in the GA races.

I’ll leave it there. It’s up to the Unions to get things done, and they ain’t listen to me, so…

There’s your “starters”

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 2:01 pm
Candidate Rauner was so wishy-washy and vague during the general election campaign that I came to believe he might not want to do anything at all, but just coveted the office as a trophy.

Didn’t turn out that way.

But you can’t say that he’s executed the “plan” so far with brains or guts, either.

The right-to-work road show was shockingly thick-headed and a humiliation. Who thought that was a good idea? Were there real expectations for success? Where did they come from?

The budget address and rollout were the equivalent of doing your mid-term on the school bus, then tossing it on the teacher’s desk when she wasn’t looking. It was in on time, but lets forget all about it. It betrayed a lack of substance from the whole crew.

Then all the tough brinkmanship talk — was just that. We got a hint on the flip on FY15 social services cuts. Then came a biggie — signing the K-12 bill after making his GOP GA peeps walk the plank against it.

That is one the most royal rodgerings I can recall a “leader” giving his loyal peeps, ever.

But the topper has to be the spectacle of the governor latching onto the unions and shopping for a judge to keep state workers paid absent an approp.

After all that tough talk about corrupt union bosses and shutdowns and long summers, the guy panicked at the heat of missing a payroll.

Over and over again, his actions have contradicted his tough rhetoric. And I still don’t know what that $2 million summer ad buy was about. Most forgettable media campaign, ever.

Now, the FY16 budget is about 80 percent complete, he’s had no input on it, and he has no “leveraged” victories to show for it.

All that’s left for him to do is raise taxes or eviscerate every state social service vendor in every legislative district.

Gee, given the record, I wonder which way the governor will bounce?

But the topper

Comment by Wordslinger Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 6:31 pm
I have thought of a new nickname for the governor - Belgian as in the waffle.

Comment by Huh? Thursday, Jul 23, 15 @ 7:54 pm
- kimocat -,

Apologies if I missed “the question”, but to be frank, I really can’t measure the buyer’s remorse.

Until a full assault, a full Union adult happens, then we can really get to how much buyer’s remorse is out there.

I have no way of gauging.

Apologies again, hope this helps. OW

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jul 24, 15 @ 12:59 am