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Who’s hiding behind whom?

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Illinois

* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…

Gov. Bruce Rauner made some news the other day when he went on Dan Proft’s WIND-AM/560 radio show and whacked Mayor Rahm Emanuel but good.

“It’s so unfortunate the way the mayor is failing the people of Chicago and he’s looking to blame other people for it,” Rauner told Proft. The mayor has done “virtually nothing” to reform the city’s government and its schools, he added.

Rauner wasn’t totally wrong on either point.

As a buddy of mine says, Emanuel is a better mayor than Richard M. Daley was, but he’s not nearly good enough. Daley set the bar very low and Emanuel is just barely clearing it, which is frustrating to anyone who thought he would do a much better job.

Yes, police shootings are down under Emanuel, but nobody could ever say that the policy changes have been anywhere near adequate.

Yes, some crime rates are down, but shootings are up.

And, yes, Emanuel’s finally doing something that Daley always ran away from by raising property taxes. But Emanuel let the finances of the city and the schools fester for more than four long years before tackling the problem.

The school funding issue is what set off the governor. Emanuel’s budget for Chicago Public Schools has a gigantic hole in it, and he expects the state to patch it for him. When Rauner said, yet again, that he wouldn’t provide any assistance unless Emanuel helped him pass his turnaround agenda, the mayor lashed out. The city’s school kids are “not a pawn in a political game in Springfield to get an agenda done that people don’t agree with,” Emanuel fumed.

OK, but if you expect help from Rauner, then you must play ball with him. If you don’t, then you can’t put all the blame on him when you’re laying off thousands of teachers.

It might be impolitic for a governor to so heavily criticize a mayor, but it’s important to remember that this isn’t new for Rauner. As a private-equity investor, he wasn’t reluctant to use tough talk when people didn’t meet his expectations.

Remember that 2014 campaign story about how Rauner allegedly threatened to “bury” a female executive who was considering suing him? “She will never get another job anywhere, ever. I will bankrupt her with legal fees,” he allegedly said.

Go read the rest before commenting, please. Thanks.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 9:08 am

Comments

Speaker Madigan and the governors he controls…

Comment by frisbee Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 9:18 am
“If anybody os hiding behind Mike Madigan, it’s Bruce Rauner.” No truer words have been spoken. Great piece, Rich.

Comment by Big Joe Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 9:31 am
Rauner is a hypocrite on rahm. He has been Very late to the anti rahm party. He was forced by public opinion to finally say sonething. Saying it on a non existent radio program means nothing. Rauner finally throwing rahm under the bus AFTEr everyone else has is laughable but rauner is a joke. Just a joke with some cash.

Comment by go4it Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 9:35 am
I agree Rich that Mayro Daley ran away from raising property taxes, he learned that from his own father.

Comment by Rod Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 9:39 am
“The governor obviously doesn’t care for people who promise big but don’t deliver.”

An interesting thought — and I believe it raises a key question in the Rahm-Rauner dispute: did Rahm promise or imply that he would join with Rauner in a triangulation strategy against Madigan?

I would guess Rauner probably read too much into Rahm’s offers to be helpful. Rahm was thinking he could mediate and move negotiations forward. Rauner thought Rahm meant he would line-up the votes of Chicago based members of the GA in exchange for some goodies, and they could have fun together imposing collective bargaining restrictions on CTU.

The problem is, Rahm has never had the juice to get more than a couple House Dems to flip on Madigan. Rahm has known that all along. Rauner is just discovering his “friend” can’t deliver, even if he wanted to.

Comment by DC Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 9:45 am
So much unhappy truth packed into those last two sentences.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 9:53 am
== “It’s so unfortunate the way the mayor is failing the people of Chicago and he’s looking to blame other people for it,” Rauner told Proft. ==

That would be out-loud-funny if it wasn’t so tragic and true about Raunner.

But my disappointing conclusion is this. Raunner Wins

Raunner will win. Sooner or later. Why? How?

Why? Because he doesn’t care. No matter what happens in IL or to IL; to its people in need; to the middle class-workers-Unions; to its finances; to its people infrastructures: It Will Not Affect Him; His Family; nor His Lifestyle ONE BIT. He only plays ‘the game’ to win.

How? Because he can outlast everything and everyone. Throw his buddies under the bus? So what? Leave people and social services agencies hanging in the wind? So what?

Destroy MJM and the Democrat party in IL? Fine! Own IL government; the GA; the Repubs. Exactly, no more ‘interference’.

And Raunner doesn’t care about any damage caused by his win at any and every cost approach to Non-Governing.

Sad and scary. For a government in America to act this way. All because of being Not Quinn.

Next governor election? Who can challenge Raunner? Only if there’s a mass uprising by IL voters who decide to elect a Not Raunner.

Comment by sal-says Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 10:40 am
Good column, as usual.

Since there’s not a real statesman in the bunch, it’s hard to see beyond more of the same for a long time. Which really puts CPS on the bubble.

Rahm should have a plan for that, but other than a media strategy, I doubt it.

Comment by Harry Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 11:21 am
I agree it’s one of the most interesting questions, why Rahm sort of fiddled for four years before launching the big tax hike, when everyone must have seen its inevitability.

I don’t have any sourcing and no one has ever told me this directly, but I always kind of assumed that one significant factor was the upcoming City Council redistricting / new election in 2015. If Rahm had come in guns blazing on a tax hike, then for a lot of CC aldermen, the first thing their new constituents hear about them is, “You’re the SOB who hiked my property taxes.” Do it after 2015, and at least everyone has four years to make peace with their constituents.

Not that this is an excuse, it just seemed to me like one of the most plausible political motivations. Maybe Rahm just wanted to hold off for other reasons.

Comment by ZC Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 1:53 pm
Maybe somebody will win the big powerball lottery and buy their own next governor to replace Rauner…
… and on that off-topic, I saw where a northern governor said that if he won the powerball lottery, he would move south away from the cold-he’s probably gonna have to move anyway, after the next election…

Comment by downstate commissioner Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 2:23 pm
Rauner has decided that char bridges are easier to cross then well mended ones.

Rauner has no time for his failures, especially if Rauner can bury someone, and that freight pays for the outcome he doesn’t want.

It’s as though hurting others is the elixir to pretend fsikures aren’t Rauner’s’?

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 3:28 pm
–Well, I can’t help but wonder what “Private Equity Rauner” would think of the excuses made by “Governor Rauner.” –

During the campaign, Private Equity Rauner turned into Sgt. Schultz whenever any hinky business practices came to light.

He was the amazing hands-on businessman who had no clue as to the practices that made him all that dough.

More of the same now.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jan 11, 16 @ 7:53 pm