For Immediate Release
Kass: Ives Crushes Rauner in Tribune Governor Debate
He’s got the money to win. But she’s got something else. And he doesn’t want any part of it.
He’s got the money to win. But she’s got something else. And he doesn’t want any part of it.
By John KassChicago Tribune
January 30, 2018 - Toward the end of his debate with GOP challenger Jeanne Ives before the Tribune Editorial Board on Monday, I asked Gov. Bruce Rauner if there would be another Republican debate.
“We’re debating right now,” he said.
But won’t there be another?
“We’re debating right now,” the governor said.
In other words: You’ve gotta be kidding me. No way.
Rauner is a tough guy, a man who’s made hundreds of millions of dollars in business deals. He made his own money, took his own risks, and he ran for governor in 2014 because the state was sinking. But on Monday, judging just from his eyes and body language after debating Ives — a West Point graduate — Rauner looked like a man who’d been whipped.
He just couldn’t quite come to grips with the whipping.
And he won’t debate her again, because she crushed it and she crushed him and it wasn’t pretty.
If you’re interested, and I hope you are if you live in Illinois and pay taxes in Illinois, and perhaps wonder what the heck happened to the state that your friends are running away from, you might want to find the video of the Ives-Rauner debate at chicagotribune.com.
Jeanne Ives crushed it so hard, way up into the upper deck, Rauner’s re-election dreams bouncing up there all alone, echoing desperately, and all the governor seemed to be able to say was “Mike Madigan” again and again. How many times did he say Mike Madigan? You couldn’t keep count.
Shortly afterward there was more Ives news: Conservative Lake Forest businessman Richard Uihlein had dropped $500,000 into her campaign chest. And there’s more to come.
Ives, the Wheaton conservative, accomplished several important goals in her Tribune debate. She had to prove she could take him on. She did that. She had to prove she was a viable candidate, and nothing removes doubts like a big fat campaign check from Dick Uihlein.
Ives had to demonstrate that despite the liberal spin, she is more a serious policy wonk than a social conservative warrior. She had to show she had the stuff to lead. She accomplished all of that.
In many ways, Rauner was at a disadvantage in the debate. The questions were even-keeled. There were no cheap shots or dramatic histrionics or posing, as you might see in a TV debate. After all, this was the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. But even so, he was injured, wounded, and couldn’t cover up and protect himself.
It was Rauner who invited the Republican primary challenge by signing a sanctuary state bill into law and by signing House Bill 40, which provides for taxpayer-funded abortions. Republican lawmakers and even Roman Catholic Cardinal Blase Cupich said he lied to them.
Rauner kept insisting that all this was a distraction from the important issues of defeating Boss Madigan’s hand-picked Democratic candidate for governor, J.B. Pritzker, and of driving Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House for decade upon decade, into the wilderness.
“Madigan would like nothing more than for Rep. Ives to be the primary victor, and having to run against Pritzker,” Rauner said. “He would love nothing more. Because I am the only person at this table that can beat Pritzker in November, Illinois is on the verge of becoming Detroit, hollowed out by corrupt politicians, massive job loss, massive tax hikes.”
To which Ives kept saying, “Platitudes and generalities.”
“He’s picking on Madigan again because he said he is not in charge,” Ives said. “Gov. Rauner has said he’s not in charge. And he’s acted like he’s not in charge. And so this is the result. Nothing gets done. Now it is interesting that he wants to pretend this primary battle is about Mike Madigan, but the truth is, his base has left him. … He will be Mark Kirked out of office because nobody trusts him anymore.”
The Mark Kirk reference might mean little to Democrats, but to Republicans it means a great deal, this invoking of Kirk, the establishment Republican who lost the Republican base. Calling someone a Mark Kirk is calling them toast.
Still, Rauner isn’t all wrong. And neither is Ives.
The governor is absolutely correct about Madigan being the problem. Boss Madigan bears responsibility for the state’s downward spiral, and a Pritzker victory would protect the Madigan regime, and also that of Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago. Rahm may have been Rauner’s wine buddy once, but the mayor’s sitting happily in Madigan’s lap these days, waiting to share snacks with Pritzker.
But it was the governor’s two fundamental errors — the gift of fatal political advice — that invited the Ives challenge. He signed sanctuary city policy when he didn’t have to. He signed taxpayer-funded abortion when he didn’t have to.
And now he wears the Mark Kirk cloak of inevitability.
Rauner couldn’t very well go on an all-out attack against Ives, because if he beats her in the primary he’ll need those conservative votes in the general election. He’ll need votes from conservative women. But putting the Republican Party together after what he’s done to it might be impossible. He won’t be able to put this one together with a Republican unity breakfast the day after the primary.
Ives said this election was all about character.
“That’s why we don’t trust him,” Ives said. “He said he would veto the (taxpayer-funded abortion) bill. He lied to the cardinal.”
“Outrageous!” said Rauner.
But he didn’t have much else to say.
After this debate, I’d bet you’ll never see Rauner within a mile of Jeanne Ives. Not if he can help it, not if he wants to win the primary. He’s got the money to win. But she’s got something else. And he doesn’t want any part of it.
“We’re debating right now,” he said.
But won’t there be another?
“We’re debating right now,” the governor said.
In other words: You’ve gotta be kidding me. No way.
Rauner is a tough guy, a man who’s made hundreds of millions of dollars in business deals. He made his own money, took his own risks, and he ran for governor in 2014 because the state was sinking. But on Monday, judging just from his eyes and body language after debating Ives — a West Point graduate — Rauner looked like a man who’d been whipped.
He just couldn’t quite come to grips with the whipping.
And he won’t debate her again, because she crushed it and she crushed him and it wasn’t pretty.
If you’re interested, and I hope you are if you live in Illinois and pay taxes in Illinois, and perhaps wonder what the heck happened to the state that your friends are running away from, you might want to find the video of the Ives-Rauner debate at chicagotribune.com.
Jeanne Ives crushed it so hard, way up into the upper deck, Rauner’s re-election dreams bouncing up there all alone, echoing desperately, and all the governor seemed to be able to say was “Mike Madigan” again and again. How many times did he say Mike Madigan? You couldn’t keep count.
Shortly afterward there was more Ives news: Conservative Lake Forest businessman Richard Uihlein had dropped $500,000 into her campaign chest. And there’s more to come.
Ives, the Wheaton conservative, accomplished several important goals in her Tribune debate. She had to prove she could take him on. She did that. She had to prove she was a viable candidate, and nothing removes doubts like a big fat campaign check from Dick Uihlein.
Ives had to demonstrate that despite the liberal spin, she is more a serious policy wonk than a social conservative warrior. She had to show she had the stuff to lead. She accomplished all of that.
In many ways, Rauner was at a disadvantage in the debate. The questions were even-keeled. There were no cheap shots or dramatic histrionics or posing, as you might see in a TV debate. After all, this was the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. But even so, he was injured, wounded, and couldn’t cover up and protect himself.
It was Rauner who invited the Republican primary challenge by signing a sanctuary state bill into law and by signing House Bill 40, which provides for taxpayer-funded abortions. Republican lawmakers and even Roman Catholic Cardinal Blase Cupich said he lied to them.
Rauner kept insisting that all this was a distraction from the important issues of defeating Boss Madigan’s hand-picked Democratic candidate for governor, J.B. Pritzker, and of driving Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House for decade upon decade, into the wilderness.
“Madigan would like nothing more than for Rep. Ives to be the primary victor, and having to run against Pritzker,” Rauner said. “He would love nothing more. Because I am the only person at this table that can beat Pritzker in November, Illinois is on the verge of becoming Detroit, hollowed out by corrupt politicians, massive job loss, massive tax hikes.”
To which Ives kept saying, “Platitudes and generalities.”
“He’s picking on Madigan again because he said he is not in charge,” Ives said. “Gov. Rauner has said he’s not in charge. And he’s acted like he’s not in charge. And so this is the result. Nothing gets done. Now it is interesting that he wants to pretend this primary battle is about Mike Madigan, but the truth is, his base has left him. … He will be Mark Kirked out of office because nobody trusts him anymore.”
The Mark Kirk reference might mean little to Democrats, but to Republicans it means a great deal, this invoking of Kirk, the establishment Republican who lost the Republican base. Calling someone a Mark Kirk is calling them toast.
Still, Rauner isn’t all wrong. And neither is Ives.
The governor is absolutely correct about Madigan being the problem. Boss Madigan bears responsibility for the state’s downward spiral, and a Pritzker victory would protect the Madigan regime, and also that of Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago. Rahm may have been Rauner’s wine buddy once, but the mayor’s sitting happily in Madigan’s lap these days, waiting to share snacks with Pritzker.
But it was the governor’s two fundamental errors — the gift of fatal political advice — that invited the Ives challenge. He signed sanctuary city policy when he didn’t have to. He signed taxpayer-funded abortion when he didn’t have to.
And now he wears the Mark Kirk cloak of inevitability.
Rauner couldn’t very well go on an all-out attack against Ives, because if he beats her in the primary he’ll need those conservative votes in the general election. He’ll need votes from conservative women. But putting the Republican Party together after what he’s done to it might be impossible. He won’t be able to put this one together with a Republican unity breakfast the day after the primary.
Ives said this election was all about character.
“That’s why we don’t trust him,” Ives said. “He said he would veto the (taxpayer-funded abortion) bill. He lied to the cardinal.”
“Outrageous!” said Rauner.
But he didn’t have much else to say.
After this debate, I’d bet you’ll never see Rauner within a mile of Jeanne Ives. Not if he can help it, not if he wants to win the primary. He’s got the money to win. But she’s got something else. And he doesn’t want any part of it.
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For more information or to book Jeanne Ives, contact Kathleen Murphy at 630-329-4680 or kathleenemurphy26@gmail.com
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