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| RAUNER: Taking on labor |
That
is the image that popped into my head when I read the statement that Republican
gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner issued this week to complain about what he
perceives as the labor unions planning an aggressive campaign against him.
RAUNER
CITED A story from the Springfield-based Capitol Fax newsletter, which reported
how the labor unions are planning to spend somewhere between $6-8 million on
broadcast advertising spots whose theme is ABB.
As
in “Anybody But Bruce.” The unions will use their political influence in the
months leading up to the March 18 Republican primary to persuade GOP voters
that they should pick any of the other candidates for the gubernatorial
nomination.
It’s
not that the unions want any of those people – Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, Dan
Rutherford of Chenoa or William Brady of Bloomington – to actually become
governor.
It’s
just that they really hate the idea of a “Governor Rauner,” whose number one
theme of his campaign has been that organized labor needs to be restrained – if
not taken down outright.
HE
HAS BEEN rather clear about his opposition to the labor unions that are a part
of the mechanism of state government. He doesn’t hide the fact that he is
hostile to their desires and will push for actions that handicap them severely. The unions want to knock Rauner out early, rather than let him go head-to-head against the Democratic gubernatorial incumbent.
Now
I’m not about to get into a diatribe about the place of organized labor in
modern-day government.
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| LABOR: Preparing to fight back |
It’s
just that for all the hostile rhetoric Rauner has spewed on the issue, he has
no right to be “shocked, shocked to learn” that labor leaders don’t like him.
To the degree that the Capitol Fax newsletter reported how unusual this tactic
is.
Typically,
union officials would show their opposition to Republican partisans
grandstanding at their expense by throwing their support to the Democratic
challenger.
EXCEPT
THAT IN this year’s election cycle, the Democrat (unless Tio Hardiman pulls off
the miracle of the Millennium) is Gov. Pat Quinn – who wants another full term
as governor.
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| QUINN: Labor not enthused about him |
The
unions aren’t that thrilled with Quinn these days. He did, after all, sign into
law a pension funding reform measure that the unions believe wrongly cuts into
the benefits their state government employee members will receive upon their
eventual retirements.
They
are the ones that will file the lawsuits that, they say, will eventually find
the plan approved by Quinn and the General Assembly to be unconstitutional.
But
for now, they’re so fearful that Rauner will win the primary and gain momentum
that he might actually be able to beat the Mighty Quinn come the November
general election.
PERSONALLY,
I THINK that Rauner could wind up taking down the Republican ticket because his
presence would drag down the vote in the rest of Illinois (as in, outside of
Chicago). But in a four-way race (actually six-way, but the other two GOPers
are mere tokens), it is likely that the “winner” will be the person who takes
about 30 percent of the primary vote.
With
the money Rauner is spending to try to appeal to the segment of society that
wants to look down on organized labor, he could take that 30 percent.
Hence,
the reason why Rauner and his operatives are using the word “hijack” to
describe the efforts of labor unions to express their opposition to the man
whose campaign theme seems to be to demonize their very existence.
The
unions that Rauner wants to smack around in an effort to become governor plan
to punch back. It’s politicking, as usual. For as author Finley Peter Dunne’s “Mr.
Dooley” told us more than a century ago, “Politics ain’t beanbag.”
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