{"id":611,"date":"2014-02-20T08:58:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T08:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/why-are-the-unions-opposing-bruce-rauner.html"},"modified":"2014-02-20T08:58:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T08:58:00","slug":"why-are-the-unions-opposing-bruce-rauner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/why-are-the-unions-opposing-bruce-rauner.html","title":{"rendered":"Why are the unions opposing Bruce Rauner?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So for those who are keeping score \u2014 well, the Illinois Republican Party is still just as pathetic as before.\u00a0 To recap:<\/p>\n

One\u00a0candidate who\u2019s\u00a0trying to buy\u00a0the election, spending gobs of his own money on TV ads that have no content except to say that he\u2019ll be careful with taxpayers\u2019 money and stick it to the unions.\u00a0 So far as I can tell, his previous involvement in politics has all been of the \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d sort.\u00a0 An anti-Rauner group calling itself \u201cRepublicans for Fairness and Justice\u201d or something like that sent out a mailer (once again, I can\u2019t find a link to an article on this, and we tossed the mailer itself already) full of such accusations, and, to be honest, I find them entirely credible \u2014 using government connections and \u201cpay to play\u201d to enrich himself, and then building friendships by helping politically-connected people get rich, too.\u00a0 (Frankly, the only way he\u2019d get my vote is if he pledges to donate his entire personal fortune to state coffers.)<\/p>\n

One candidate who\u2019s dead in the water, not just because of a lawsuit alleging gay sexual harassment, but because, after spending state money on an investigation, he refused to make public the findings of the investigators.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

One candidate who\u2019s so determinedly-centrist that he\u00a0just\u00a0won the teacher\u2019s union endorsement.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand this one.\u00a0 Sure, it burnishes his bipartisanship credentials, but what\u2019s the point of a Republican governor who will govern identically to a Democratic one?\u00a0 One of the most damning moments of Quinn\u2019s prior campaign was when he authorized an extremely generous long-term contract with a state employees\u2019 union only to, immediately afterwards, receive the union\u2019s endorsement.<\/p>\n

And one candidate who\u2019s far enough to the right that his electability is in serious doubt.<\/p>\n

None of the candidates has given me any reason to believe they can truly solve Illinois\u2019 entrenched problems \u2014 though I\u2019ll admit that, so far as I can tell, they\u2019re unsolvable as long as Illinois remains Madiganistan, so unseating Madigan sure ought to be a higher priority than the governor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

And here come the unions, according to the latest Tribune article<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cIllinois Freedom [PAC] has raised nearly $2.1 million from public employee unions, including those representing teachers and state workers as well as cash for polling and research from another campaign fund set up by the Democratic Governors association\u201d\u00a0\u2014 money being used to air anti-Rauner attack ads.<\/p>\n

Typically, one would\u00a0imagine these attack ads, coming\u00a0this soon, as an indicator that the Democrats and unions fear that Rauner would\u00a0defeat\u00a0Quinn, and their best chance is stopping him at the primary, to produce a less competitive candidate at general election time.\u00a0 Do\u00a0unions really think that Rauner\u2019s personal spending will make him a threat at the General Election, rather than repelling voters once he faces\u00a0a well-financed opponent, rather than the three\u00a0Republicans who barely have two nickels to\u00a0scrape together at this point?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Or is this just a practical investment?\u00a0 Two million dollars in ads spent now\u00a0pays dividends in producing a less-well-financed GOP\u00a0opponent in November, and lower spending requirements in November?<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t think Rauner can really do much to fight against the unions \u2014 but he can certainly put a halt to giving them the goodies they\u2019re used to, like the generous uncontested contracts, or the plum arrangement of forcibly unionizing Medicaid-paid family caregivers.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So for those who are keeping score \u2014 well, the Illinois Republican Party is still just as pathetic as before.\u00a0 To recap: One\u00a0candidate who\u2019s\u00a0trying to buy\u00a0the election, spending gobs of his own money on TV ads that have no content except to say that he\u2019ll be careful with taxpayers\u2019 money and stick it to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy are the unions opposing Bruce Rauner?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So for those who are keeping score -- well, the Illinois Republican Party is still just as pathetic as before.  To recap:One candidate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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