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Left unsaid

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Illinois

* Note the unmentioned conflicting statements here…

Rauner took time again on Tuesday to sell his agenda, offering a counterpoint to characterizations made by House Speaker Mike Madigan.

“When someone says to you that our requests or our recommendations are extreme, I hope you ask them what they mean by that,” Rauner said. “The vast majority of the people in Illinois, Democrats and Republicans, support term limits — not extreme … support redistricting … vast majority of states Democrats and Republicans have taken things out of collective bargaining. Democrats in Illinois have done that. Not extreme.

“So don’t buy the argument that it’s extreme. People say, the governor is trying to hurt the middle class of Illinois … that is not the case. The middle class of Illinois is not helped by big government bureaucracy.”

When asked how he explained his poll numbers dropping if Illinois residents were on board, Rauner laughed.

“All I can say is, I don’t pay attention to polls,” Rauner said. “Everywhere I go in the state I’ve got people coming up to me by the hundreds [saying], ‘Stay strong, governor. Don’t back down, governor.’”

So, on the one hand the governor says the “vast majority” of Illinoisans support term limits and redistricting, which indicates that the governor pays close attention to polls.

On the other hand, he says “I don’t pay attention to polls.”

And on the other hand (yes, I know I’m up to three hands, but so is the governor), Rauner’s folks touted a favorable poll just days ago.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 8:32 am

Comments

The idea of trust was lost with this Govenor when talking about “his word” when the then Governor-Elect just couldn’t be truthful about 2 phone calls.

Speaks volumes to the “man Rauner” and it appears the Rauner Crew now is willing to blatently contradict themselves for a temporary feeling of, you guessed it, “winning the news day”.

The Rauner Crew outside Rauner, they’re better than this.

Rauner is just being Rauner. “Nothing to see here, nothing new. Move along.”

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 8:36 am
What stuck out to me from that excerpt:

The vast majority of PEOPLE IN ILLINOIS support redistricting and term limits. The vast majority of STATES have “taken things out of collective bargaining.”

Is this an admission, or at least an acknowledgement, that most folks in Illinois are not ready to jump on the destroy unions bandwagon?

Comment by Centennial Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 8:38 am
The vast majority of Illonosans supported drastic cuts in Wealthy Welfare (Millionaires Tax)…..Bruce!

Comment by Jack Stephens Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 8:44 am
“All I can say is, I don’t pay attention to polls …, Everywhere I go in the state I’ve got people coming up to me by the hundreds [saying], ‘Stay strong, governor. Don’t back down, governor.’”

Boy, if I had a little time I bet I could find a near-verbatim quote from Blago along these lines circa 2008.

Comment by Sam Weinberg Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 8:49 am
If we are making aweeping, gross generalizations (and it seems we are) the vast majority of Illinoisans support a millionaires tax.

At least that one has the votes to hold up the claim.

Also, isn’t this how CEO’s act? Everything’s great until the collapse mentality?

Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 9:03 am
When you live in a bubble everything you do is right and popular.

Comment by Gruntled University Employee Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 9:04 am
“All my buddies, Griffin, Uhlein, Ricketts, Koch…they say keep up the God work Bruce. Do you need a few more million?”

Comment by Austin Blvd Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 9:23 am
He came up in an environment where you spend enough in marketing, the truth can be what you want it to be.

Comment by Bemused Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 9:31 am
Gotta hand it to Rauner for consistency. He is consistently inconsistent.

Comment by Ottawa Otter Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 9:40 am
Madigan needs to speak more clearly. Substitute “political class” for “middle class” in his comments and you can see who Rauner’s policies would really hurt.

Comment by After Further Review Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 9:49 am
===Substitute “political class” for “middle class” in his comments and you can see who Rauner’s policies would really hurt.===

AFR, I’m thinking that eliminating prevailing wage, the ability to negotiate for wages, benefits, work rules etc, in other words, the never-mentioned, but true goal of Rauner’s turnaround agenda hurts the middle class. Period.

Comment by PublicServant Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 9:58 am
“When asked how he explained his poll numbers dropping if Illinois residents were on board, Rauner laughed.

“All I can say is, I don’t pay attention to polls,” Rauner said.”

When the citizens of Illinois were asked to explain Rauner’s contention that his “requests/recommendations” a.k.a. demands are not extreme they laughed.

“All we can say is, we don’t pay attention to Rauner’s rhetoric,” the citizens said.

Comment by Cubs in '15 Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 10:16 am
Doesn’t this new line of attack, that Dems have in the past placed limits on collective bargaining and done other things the unions don’t like, completely undermine his overall narrative that until he came along the unions completely ran the show in Springfield?

Comment by Eugene Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 11:01 am
And on the fourth hand, where’s the polling on the real agenda — the union-busting stuff?

Rauner ain’t running the state into the ditch for term limits, for crying out loud. It’s all about the union stuff and nothing else.

That’s his personal prize. It has nothing to do with economics, or the budget, or anything else. It’s for him.

Comment by Wordslinger Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 11:07 am
” I’ve got people coming up to me by the hundreds”

He keeps using this line but yet, is there any evidence of this happening, or is this just typical political hyperbole.

Comment by Person 8 Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 11:40 am
Frankly have pretty much lost interest in anything he says, unless it’s an announcement of a budget agreement. Rauner’s not a reliable source.

Comment by walker Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 12:00 pm
“I don’t pay attention to polls (that don’t support me or my turnaround agenda).”

There, fixed it.

Comment by Sir Reel Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 12:00 pm
=== Rauner ain’t running the state into the ditch for term limits, for crying out loud. It’s all about the union stuff and nothing else. ===

Exactly. But his union stuff doesn’t poll as well as term limits.

=== Doesn’t this new line of attack, that Dems have in the past placed limits on collective bargaining and done other things the unions don’t like, completely undermine his overall narrative that until he came along the unions completely ran the show in Springfield? ===

The next time our Republican friens claim the Democrats are completely controlled by the unions, we can quote Rauner to prove otherwise!

Comment by nona Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 12:04 pm
I wonder how well term limits poll among current state legislators of both parties…probably not so well.

Comment by Robert the Bruce Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 1:12 pm
Term limits have worked pretty well in Arizona. One of the biggest advantages is that legislators don’t become “experts” in forming policy so they start with the vision and mission that got them elected and rely on professionals to write the law and programs. When elected officials are too long in the system they become more about inserting loopholes in statutes in order to get lobbying jobs and campaign cash for inserting them. More people get involved to actually do some good rather than find ways to feather their nest during and after they hold office.

I’m not saying that we don’t have corrupt elected officials out here, but having known far too many Illinois pols there’s much less of the “where’s mine?” mentality here than in the Land of Lincoln.

Comment by Arizona Bob Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 2:21 pm
“The middle class of Illinois is not helped by big government bureaucracy”

And what meaningful cuts to the bureaucracy have you been able to come up with exactly?

Comment by drew Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 2:52 pm
I’ll go further and allege, Rauner’s problem is that he’s almost obsessively concerned with the polls.

I wrote this off initially but I’m hearing enough anecdotal stories building up, from multiple trusted sources, that if you trapped Rauner in a room and extensively grilled him about most of his “Turnaround Agenda” - the term limits idea, the workers’ comp, the redistricting reform - he’d run out of intelligent things to say about most of them, fast. He just isn’t up on the details. Maybe he is on the anti-union stuff.

So why does he keep insisting on them? Because the words poll well.

Comment by ZC Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 2:55 pm
It’s called selection bias.

Comment by Apples in the Square Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 3:03 pm
Rauner: Soooo….I was sitting with the Republican caucus the other day and I asked each one of them how they felt on the various issues as I wrote them out checks for their campaigns and the polling numbers significantly aligned with my agenda.

Comment by Kerfuffle Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 4:00 pm
when yy cant say your proposal on collective bargaining isnto eliminat wages, work hours, medical care and pensions from being baragined…. and are afraid to note those points, tour proposal is exteme….

Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Oct 14, 15 @ 4:40 pm
I thought this clown would be good for Illinois. Now I support his proposal of term limits.

Now Bruce, how about resigning for health reasons and leave the office before the end of your term for the sake of Illinois and its electorate.

Comment by Bruce Rauner Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 2:54 am