Venture capitalist Bruce Rauner won the GOP primary Tuesday in his bid for Illinois governor, as voters embraced a first campaign by the multimillionaire who flooded the airwaves with vows to run the Democratic stronghold like a business and curb the influence of government unions.
With Republicans eyeing what they view as their best shot in years to win the top job in President Barack Obama’s home state, Rauner defeated three longtime state lawmakers — including the current state treasurer. He advances to a November matchup with Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who easily won his nomination for a second full term.
Between Quinn and predecessor Rod Blagojevich, now imprisoned for corruption, Democrats have held the governorship since 2003. But Rauner could present a serious threat, partly due to a massive campaign bank account that already includes more than $6 million of his own money.
For voters across Illinois, the governor’s race represented a potentially transformative battle over union influence, with some voters saying they wanted to break an alliance between organized labor and Democrats, who have long controlled most statewide offices and the Legislature.
Organized labor battled back out of concern that Rauner could seek to weaken unions in the same way GOP governors have in other states across the Midwest.
Rauner says he would model his governorship after those of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Both significantly rolled back union power in what they said were necessary steps to attract business and reduce costs. Rauner defeated state Sens. Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard and state Treasurer Dan Rutherford in the primary.
“Rauner is going to be a bull in a china shop; we need a bull,” said Tom Sommer, a 57-year-old real estate broker from the Chicago suburb Hinsdale. “It’s not going to be more of the same.”
Issues such as a public pension overhaul and high taxes “are coming to the fore and the old guard is not going to handle that,” Sommer said, adding that he voted for Rauner because of his tough talk against the unions that represent public sector workers. That sentiment persists despite Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s push to fix Illinois’ finances by overhauling the heavily underwater public pension systems, which earned him the unions’ ire.
Rauner has also won supporters with his call for term limits.
Union leaders, meanwhile, sought Rauner’s defeat by encouraging members to pull Republican ballots and vote for Dillard, who picked up several union endorsements.
The typically left-leaning unions spent more than $6 million on the GOP primary, both in anti-Rauner and pro-Dillard ads. Rauner raised more than $14 million, including $6 million of his own money — more than any candidate seeking a gubernatorial nomination in state history.
Rauner warned supporters about the unions’ efforts, saying Quinn’s “allies” were trying to hijack the election. He said legislative term limits could break the labor-Democratic alliance.
Quinn’s first re-election ad of the season — focusing on Rauner’s evolving stance on raising the minimum wage — hit the airwaves Tuesday evening. Quinn has called for increasing the state’s rate from $8.25 to at least $10 an hour. Rauner had initially called for a cut and later said he’d raise it under certain circumstances.
In the southern Illinois, voters had another reason to want to upend the state’s political order, saying they felt marginalized and neglected by a political balance weighted toward Democrats and the Chicago region.
“In the last 10 years, things have gotten really bad (in the state),” said Marty Johns, 48, of Godfrey. “Throw out all the Democrats in Chicago. All of our money goes up there while southern Illinois gets the crumbs.”
Johns said he voted for Dillard to “remove Quinn.”
But others said they liked Quinn, whose administration has avoided major scandals — unlike his two predecessors who went to prison.
“I think he’s honest and he does the best he can do with what he’s got to work with,” said Ed Kline, a 61-year-old LeRoy farmer who voted for Quinn.
Quinn, who was Blagojevich’s lieutenant governor and assumed the office after he was booted amid a corruption scandal, easily defeated a lesser-known primary challenger Tio Hardiman in his bid for a second full term.
Brady won the 2010 GOP nomination, but lost the general election to Quinn. Brady, of Bloomington, argued he built the support during that bid to defeat Quinn this time around.
Rutherford, of Chenoa, did little campaigning recently. He all but conceded defeat after a former employee filed a federal lawsuit accusing Rutherford of sexual harassment and political coercion. Rutherford denied the allegations.
Republican primary voters also chose state Sen. Jim Oberweis, a dairy magnate, to run in November against U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat. Oberweis, who defeated businessman and West Point graduate Doug Truax in the primary, has lost five of his six bids for public office.
Also on the ballot were primary races for the U.S. House, Illinois Legislature and statewide constitutional officers.
(AP)
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7 Responses
YWN should give useful information rather than the AP story:
Is he Shomer Shabbos or Shomer kashrus in any form? What shul does he go to? What sort of schools do his children go to? Are his parents, and his wife, Jewish according to halacha? Does he support frum charities?
From the Wikipedia article, he appears to be totally assimilated. Why not tell YWN readers the sorts of Lashon Hora we are interested in about politicians of Jewish descent.
Nice headline. But Rauner is as likely to win in this bluest of blue states as my grandmother. So he won the Republican primary. He got the majority of the maybe 30% of this state that votes in that primary. He will get very few of the 70% of Democrats that are here.
The thing about wanting to run a government like a business is that government is not a business.
Rod Blagojevich tried to run it like a business. That worked out well.
midwesterner, you are very wrong, Illinois is not a Blue State. Like NJ, outside of the major metropolis’s it is pretty Red. Before Blogojevich, they had a Republican Gov. Since Illinois is going the way of Detroit, the citizens of that great state are realizing, like thos in socialist Wisconsin, that conservative leadership is better!!
Heretohelp, Balgojevich ran it like HIS business, pocketing money all over the place, like a typical corrupt Democrat. Walker, Jindal, Christie, Barber, and i can go on and on are all running their states like corporations, and creating better states in the process.
Heres to hearing the morning after election day, Gov Elect Rauner from the great state of Illinois!!
heretohelp: Blagojevich ran it like a business, such as a small family business where the owner keeps taking money our of the cash register for spending money, and ends up going broke and getting busted for tax evasion.
Actually, for those that want to hear what really matters, a Rauner win (and no, he won’t make the governor’s mansion any more Jewish than the Catholics until now did) means a huge hit to many of the benefits the Chicago community has seen over the years, as few as they are, including the school busing program. That much has practically been promised. Although it sounds nice to hear about running the state like a business and busting the unions, ultimately he will need to deal with a Democratic legislature, famed for getting nothing done when they don’t like the Governor. Believe it or not, between the few social-service benefits our community has and the business connections made with the current administration that enable the supporters of the local mosdos to be matzliach, it is conceivable that it is in the community’s best interests to see Quinn win.
That being said, it will boil down to turnout at the polls, which in the last governor’s election made the difference by very few votes. Quinn has a very good chance at winning, but so does Rauner. The key is to listen to the people that really know (as I try to do-I’m NOT one of them) and to our gedolim who say to get out and vote.
Illinois is a blue state now. in the 70s and 80s it was true that the collar counties and downstate were red. But now, the entire Chicagoland area is verrry blue. Out to Highland Park and Elgin are blue, and going down to Kankakee and Champaign you are purple at best. Downstate just doesn’t have the numbers to offset that.
Mwpres is also correct that the Democrats promise more to the Long Term Care industry, and the Republicans promise to cut. LTC and all of its support organizations is what keeps the mosdos afloat. That is what happened last time. Fully funded MDS, and other like matters, for those in the know. However, regulations have changed in sooooo many ways, ways that only a Democrat could come up with. Those make it much harder to make a living in that very industry that threw its support to Quinn.
Quinn is an over the top populist, with very little tochen. Mike Madigan runs the state. Undzere menchen have his ear, and that is helpful. Bottom line though is Al tivtechu b’nedivim.