Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what’s going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.
Topspin
Conservative mega-donor Richard Uihlein granted a rare interview to National Review in which he reveals that while he backed Rep. Jeanne Ives in the Republican primary, he will vote for Gov. Bruce Rauner in November.
Uihlein, the Lake Forest businessman who owns Uline packing materials company, has spent $22.4 million on state GOP candidates and causes since 1998, including $2.6 million for Rauner’s first bid for governor in 2014.
But Uihlein broke from Rauner after his signature on legislation expanding taxpayer-subsidized abortions and backed Ives, the three-term Wheaton Republican who narrowly lost to Rauner in March. Uihlein gave her $2.5 million.
“Jeanne proved that people are hungry for change,” Uihlein says in the article. Author John J. Miller writes that Uihlein is “now skeptical about Rauner’s ability to deliver (change) but says that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, J.B. Pritzker, would be a disaster for Illinois: ‘I will vote for Rauner over Pritzker.’ ” State Sen. Sam McCann, a Republican from Downstate Plainview, is also mounting a third-party bid.
The article also recounts how Uihlein met John Tillman, chairman and CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute. Last decade, Tillman was looking for work after selling his used sporting goods store.
“I’d been getting the Uline catalog for a while,” Tillman said. “So I wrote a letter to the owner.” The article says Tillman and Uihlein met, but their conversation turned to what was described as “Tillman’s real passion: creating a network of freedom-minded organizations in Illinois.”
“Dick became my anchor donor,” Tillman says in the article, adding that Uihlein gave him $50,000 in seed money to start the institute. Millions more from Uihlein have flowed since.
In February, Rauner said he wouldn’t give the institute “another nickel.” (Rick Pearson)
What’s on tap
*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will have a South Side police event with Superintendent Eddie Johnson, then attend an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall opening. In the afternoon, he’s set to preside over a City Council meeting to consider a controversial West Side police academy, though a legal challenge could put it off.
*Gov. Bruce Rauner has no public events.
*The Illinois House and Senate are in session. Both will return to the Capitol on Monday.
*Programming note: “Morning Spin” won’t return until Tuesday.
From the notebook
*Other donations: Not mentioned in the article is Uihlein’s relationship with conservative talk show host and political operative Dan Proft, who played a leading role in Ives’ campaign for governor.
Uihlein gave $95,000 to Proft’s failed bid for the GOP governor nomination in 2010, then gave him an additional $500,000 later to help seed Proft’s political operation. Since then, Uihlein has given Proft’s Liberty Principles political action committee $12.1 million, including $3 million in January.
And Uihlein has become a prolific donor to federal candidates, including giving $100,000 to a super PAC backing Republican Roy Moore in a special Senate election in Alabama. Moore was accused of sexually molesting or assaulting teens ages 14 and 16 while he was in his 30s. Moore denied the allegations but lost the election to Democrat Doug Jones. (Rick Pearson)
*Pritzker needles Rauner by proposing debate in Quincy: Pritzker on Thursday announced he would participate in three broadcast debates — including one at a site of controversy.
Rauner’s campaign agreed that there will be debates. But it said it hasn’t agreed to any yet or worked with the Pritzker camp to set up any forums.
In a statement, Pritzker said he would participate in a Sept. 20 Chicago debate carried by NBC-Ch. 5 and Telemundo, an Oct. 3 Chicago debate carried by ABC-Ch. 7 and Univision, and a Oct. 11 debate in Quincy on local station WGEM-TV and carried statewide through the Illinois Broadcasters Association.
The Quincy location is of note as the location of the post-Civil War veterans’ home where 13 people have died since a Legionnaire’s disease outbreak in 2015. Usually, debates held Downstate are in Springfield or central Illinois and in southern Illinois in or near Carbondale, the home of Southern Illinois University. But they are not typically held in a west-central Illinois community of about 40,000 people along the Mississippi River.
Rauner and his administration have been criticized for not doing enough to stem annual outbreaks at the facility. Rauner, who has twice stayed at the facility, said his administration has followed federal recommendations and is now seeking $246 million from the legislature to rebuild the veterans’ home.
In a statement, Pritzker did not directly mention Quincy. Instead, his campaign noted he participated in three televised debates in winning the primary.
“I look forward to sharing my vision for creating jobs, expanding health care, and investing in education and comparing it to Bruce Rauner’s failed record,” Pritzker said.
In response, Rauner campaign spokesman Will Allison said, “Gov. Rauner looks forward to participating in debates to talk about how J.B. Pritzker is wrong on taxes, corruption and (Democratic House Speaker) Mike Madigan.” (Rick Pearson)
*Lawmakers hear from former Gaming Board chief: Former Illinois Gaming Board Administrator Mark Ostrowski told House lawmakers Thursday he was pressured to resign from his post by Gov. Rauner’s administration because it was taking a “different direction” and his “services were no longer required.”
Ostrowski, who first took the job as head of the gaming board under ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich more than a decade ago, resigned in late April. He said on Thursday he felt like he was “going to be terminated” if he did not to leave willingly.
A Rauner spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ostrowski testified during a late-afternoon House committee hearing to examine why several state administrators recently quit their jobs. Ostrowski’s resignation coincided with abrupt departures of top members of the Liquor Control Board.
Asked by lawmakers about his performance record over his years on the job, Ostrowski said he received good reviews from the board that oversaw his employment.
“That’s why this was surprising for me,” he added. (Bill Lukitsch)
*On the “Sunday Spin”: Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson’s guests are WTTW-Ch.-11 government and politics correspondent Amanda Vinicky; state Rep. Dan Brady of Bloomington, deputy Republican leader and a state budget negotiator; and state Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie, deputy leader of the House Democratic majority. The “Sunday Spin” airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-AM 720.
What we’re writing
*Amazon official to Emanuel on Chicago HQ2 pitch: “Everyone here was impressed.”
*EPA deal marks dramatic shift away from dirty coal power in Chicago area.
*Opponents of new police academy try to stop Friday vote.
*Get ready for buses at O’Hare this year as “people mover” gets rehab.
*Trump pardons Jack Johnson.
*Chicago’s population drops for a third year in a row — but the city is still ahead of Houston.
*CTA manager resigns after nude photos found on his computer.
What we’re reading
*Gas prices spike before travel-heavy Memorial Day weekend, but travelers so far are undeterred.
*What lurks underneath the new Chewbacca? A 7-foot former basketball player from Finland.
*BuzzFeed News developing documentary for Hulu about allegations against R. Kelly.
Follow the money
*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.
Beyond Chicago
*Trump cancels North Korea summit.
*McConnell says cocaine tweet “softened my image.”
*Weinstein to be arrested on Friday.