Rauner ad not as strident as many feared
Gov. Bruce Rauner's much-anticipated TV commercial isn't as over-the-top negative as we might have thought. "Exactly," was the response from a Rauner official whom I spoke with after watching the...
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Rauner hits the road, ripping Dem leaders
Gov. Bruce Rauner gave rip-roaring speeches in several Democratic legislative districts last week, denouncing the state's Democratic leadership. All of his visits were accompanied by Illinois Republican Party news releases...
Democrats, Rauner camp still misunderstand each other
After five months, you'd think that the warring parties at the Illinois Statehouse would have learned something about each other. Instead, last week's bitter and divisive House overtime session showed...
Rauner moves to rein in lobbyists
Forget about the state budget, forget about Gov. Bruce Rauner's "Turnaround Agenda," forget about the almost unprecedented animosity during the spring legislative session between Democrats and Republicans. The most-talked-about issue...
Good news hard to find in Springfield
I spent the better part of last Wednesday asking folks around the Statehouse if they had anything positive to tell me. I went looking for anything that might indicate a...
Rauner, money talk in House right-to-work vote
Gov. Bruce Rauner had several House Republicans over to the governor's mansion last week to ask them to vote "present" when the House Democrats' called their right-to-work bill the following...
Members of secret legislative groups ID’d
I recently obtained a document distributed by Gov. Bruce Rauner's office detailing the membership lists and meeting times and locations of the secret state legislative "working groups." The governor's office...
Rauner playing hardball on ‘Turnaround Agenda’
The new legislative "working groups" designed to achieve compromises on Gov. Bruce Rauner's "Turnaround Agenda" have finally begun meeting in secret, and at least one of them got a bit...
Eccentric Madigan takes a puzzling path
A couple of weeks ago, I started noticing that House Speaker Michael Madigan wasn't voting on most legislation during his chamber's floor debates. Madigan was feeling under the weather that...
Schock’s career collapse a blow to state, national GOP
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock's resignation is not only a blow to national Republicans, for whom Schock raised millions, but also to Illinois Republicans. Just eight weeks ago, Schock was widely...