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| RAUNER: Turning to his wallet |
And since the venture capitalist is quite wealthy, he’s used to the idea of throwing his money around to sway people to go along with his desires.
WHICH
IS THE way he plans to go about governing for the remainder of time that he’s
the chief executive of Illinois government – a title I suspect he’s probably
more comfortable with than governor.
It
explains the way he’s approaching this election cycle; one in which he has made
many significant donations to Republican legislative candidates. He’s hoping he
can create a gigantic sway in the partisan leanings of the General Assembly.
In
his wildest dreams, he’d like the House of Representatives and state Senate to
sway over to Republican control – which would be a big leap considering that
both legislative chambers are so overwhelmingly Democratic that they theoretically
can override any attempt by the governor to use his veto power.
Some
$16 million, the Associated Press reports, is being spent this election cycle
by Rauner to bolster the chances of GOP legislative candidates of winning.
WHO’S
TO SAY what the chances are it will be successful. Since in the past, Rauner’s
money hasn’t had much of an effect politically. Although I’m sure the governor
is thinking that the past is the past. All he cares about is the future, and
all it will take is one election cycle for him to try to undo all the
opposition he has faced during his two years as governor thus far.
Rauner
on Tuesday made his attitude all the more clear, what with the way the state Supreme
Court refused to reconsider its rejection of a proposal that would have allowed
for a voter referendum come November related to redistricting.
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| State Supreme Court wouldn't give gov power he desired |
One that I’m sure he dreams would have allowed for the redrawing of political boundaries to eliminate that majority of legislators who are never going to give in to his idea of reform – which really amounts to nothing more than reducing the influence that organized labor has over government.
Or
which can also be described as giving big business interests a dominant place over
government as it tries to protect the public interest!
AS
RAUNER PUT it, “now that the courts have denied Illinoisans the right to vote
on a redistricting referendum in November for the last time, it is up to the
General Assembly to address political reform – term limits and independent
redistricting – as soon as they reconvene in the fall.”
Which
isn’t going to happen, let’s be honest. So Rauner will focus his attention on
trying to rig the Legislature to his favor.
I
suspect Rauner was paying way too much attention to the City Council all these
years, which acted as a rubber stamp to whatever desires the Chicago mayor had
at any given time. Do we really think we’d be better off if the General
Assembly started behaving in such a manner?
I
also wonder how many of the ideologues inclined to back Rauner are also of the
sort who are thankful that Congress has acted as an obstructionist body to
President Barack Obama. Which means I don’t really want to hear any idealistic
political theory talk from them!
WHAT
WE HAVE these days is a well-funded candidate who can use his own personal
wealth to try to buy silence from those people who’d oppose him.
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| HOLCOMB: Will it be enough cash? |
Which is the best way to view the $100,000 he has donated to the gubernatorial campaign of Eric Holcomb in Indiana. Holcomb is the recently-appointed lieutenant governor who wants to succeed Mike Pence – who is now Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
Pence
has been a royal pain in the derriere to Illinois and to Rauner what with his
initiatives to steal away piddling little businesses from Illinois to the
Hoosier state, and Rauner would like to see a change in Indiana attitude.
Perhaps
he figures a hundred grand is enough to get Holcomb to back off and stay on his
own side of State Line Road in coming years.
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