A Rauner-like re-do come 2020?

Those of us paying attention will remember the Republican primary for governor in 2018 – the one where incumbent Bruce Rauner narrowly defeated his challenger, state Sen. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton, but was left so weakened that Democrat J.B. Pritzker easily cleaned his clock come the general election.

RAUNER: Will we relive 2018 GOP primary?

Well, guess what! It seems we’re going to get a replay, of sorts, come 2020. Or at least those people who live in the Illinois 6^th Congressional district will.

THOSE ARE THE people of suburban DuPage County who for many years were represented in Congress by Henry Hyde, and whose district was considered the very base of the Republican Party in Illinois.

But as one of the ultimate bits of evidence that the Illinois GOP is not really the “Party of Lincoln” of tradition any longer, the district picked Sean Casten, a Democrat, to be their Congressman in last year’s election.

Which means Republicans are viewing dumping Casten from office as one of their political priorities, and the list of people willing to use the Republican banner to campaign on is developing.

Rauner’s lieutenant governor running mate, Evelyn Sanguinetti, already has expressed interest in the post. She’s a Wheaton native who once served on the City Council, prior to Rauner tapping her as his potential backup – had something happened to him while in office.

IVES: Rehashing Rauner trashing?

WHICH COULD TURN out to be the campaign where Sanguinetti goes out of her way to claim that Rauner was never fully appreciated by Illinoisans – and how her political victory could be a sign of redemption.

So perhaps it is all too appropriate that Sanguinetti has a primary election challenger she will have to beat before she can get to campaigning against Casten.

It’s none other than Jeanne Ives herself – the woman who repeatedly bashed about Rauner and claimed he was way too liberal for Illinois. Even though the bulk of Illinois voters ultimately voted for governor in ways indicating hey thought she was too conservative for our state.

Does this mean the congressional primary next year will wind up as a replay of the Republican gubernatorial primary? Even though now Ives’ operatives are circulating a poll trying to figure out how she’d stand up against Casten in a general election.

SANGUINETTI: Defending her former superior?

ARE WE GOING to hear a defense of The Rauner Years from Sanguinetti, countered with constant repeats of the Rauner bashing that Ives engaged in last year – with constant reminders that Sanguinetti is little more than a Rauner lackey?

Will Ives think that using the 2020 primary to try to beat Rauner’s running mate is a way of rewriting history – creating the perception that SHE was the real winner in the long run?

I’m sure Sanguinetti backers (are their any?) will try to claim she’s an independent persona in her own right. But her lieutenant governorship was very low key – as are most lieutenant governors. She’s not going to have a lot of independent government achievements to tout.

Making it far too easy for her to be dubbed as Rauner-lite by Ives. Who herself will easily be tagged with a label of just another ideological loon who can’t accept the fact that the majority of Illinois thinks she’s wrong!

THERE IS ONE positive to the idea of a Sanguinetti/Ives matchup in the Illinois 6^th Republican primary – this will be limited to the land of DuPage, rather than the entirety of Illinois as was last year’s gubernatorial primary.

CASTEN: An easier-than-expected re-election in 2020?

We won’t all be subjected to the rounds of nonsense rhetoric a second time. Then again, I suspect the overwhelming majority of Cook County (which accounts for nearly half of Illinois’ population) voters focused on the Democratic primary and didn’t pay much attention to Rauner/Ives to begin with.

Which could make Sean Casten, a resident of suburban Downers Grove, the ultimate winner.

The Sanguinetti/Ives primary could get so vicious rhetorically that they beat each other silly. Leaving each other all bloodied politically to the point that Casten doesn’t get anywhere near as intense a challenge for his re-election as Republican political operatives dream of giving him next year.

  -30-

EXTRA: Just in case we felt lonely without her, Leslie Munger is back

Leslie Munger lost her government post a couple of months ago, following her electoral defeat last year to Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza. Yet it almost feels like she never departed.
 

MUNGER: Now deputy gov?

Sure enough, she’s back!

MUNGER WAS NAMED Friday to the post of deputy governor, which Gov. Bruce Rauner says will be a post that will add to the discussions that are supposed to be taking place to put together the first state budget of the nearly two-year-old Rauner era.

She also is supposed to work with non-profit organizations to see how they can be utilized by state government.

 

MENDOZA: Still the comptroller

Keep in mind this does NOT put Munger in line to be governor should Rauner become amongst the dearly departed. The post of lieutenant governor remains in the hands of Evelyn Sanguinetti – the one-time Wheaton municipal official with little other government experience.

Not that Munger had much more before being appointed back in January 2015 to become state Comptroller – on account of the fact that the duty-elected Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka passed away before her term could begin.

SHE HAD NEVER held elective office. Yet now, she’s being touted as some wisened sage who will guide our state government out of the morass into which it has sank.

 

SANGUINETTI: Outranks Munger. Or does she?

Unless you think having worked for Helene Curtis and Procter & Gamble gave her some special skills and knowledge.

But hey, Rauner had to do something to reward the person who, for a couple of years, gave him a fellow Republican amongst the state’s constitutional officers. Compared to now, where he’s the lone GOPer in a state sea of Democrats.

Just something to keep in mind the next time Republican political operatives get all worked up and act all huffy about some Democratic deal rewarding someone politically for a job that will never need to be done.

  -30-

Labor Day is what we make of it

What should we make of Labor Day? The event that will provoke various celebrations of assorted types that probably say more about our own views than anything about the holiday itself.

RAUNER: Picking a lower-key scene for Labor Day

For the record, Monday is the day in which we will pay tribute to the workers of our society – those people whose labor helps make us the finest place on Planet Earth in which one can live.

OF COURSE, THERE also are those who find the very idea of honoring organized labor to be something subversive. That attitude comes out in the types of celebrations that will be held in various communities.

Take west suburban Naperville, where the parade to be held Monday morning is officially billed as the “Last Fling,” as though the day’s purpose is to have one last celebration before summer comes to an end.

The day is officially being sponsored in that community by a Kia auto dealership and is honoring the local park district as its grand marshal, although among its participants will be Gov. Bruce Rauner – not exactly the kind of politico with any interest in building up a favorable impression among organized labor interests.

The atmosphere in Naperville is likely to be different than what will take place in Calumet City – which usually has an end-of-summer parade that gives a bit of tribute to organized labor.

IT’S NOT THE kind of place that Rauner would choose to be in – likely because he knows the locals would boo and heckle him mercilessly if he were to show his face.

Can Sanguinetti come out on top ...

Which is probably why Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti will be the official state participant in that parade – I suspect her presence will be undetected because most of the locals won’t have a clue who she is or what she looks like!

The fact that Southpaw, the fuzzy green mascot of the Chicago White Sox, is also to appear in the Calumet City parade will probably be seen as a bigger deal.

Of course, some people couldn’t wait until Monday to celebrate Labor Day.

... or will Southpaw top her in Calumet City?

TAKE THE PARADE held Saturday along Ewing Avenue in the 10^th Ward – where Alderman Susan Sadlowski Garza managed to coordinate the first Labor Day parade held in the far southeast corner of Chicago in the past two decades.

The East Side neighborhood and surrounding communities still have organized labor leanings, even though the number of local residents employed in steel mills or factories isn’t anywhere near as many as it used to be.

It’s more a neighborhood of people who used to be able to live off their brawn, and in many cases complain that they can’t still do so.

Then again, let’s not forget that the last municipal elections saw Garza, a Chicago Teachers Union member, win her election against former Alderman John Pope because of her union ties – which also saw local residents vote strongly in favor of dumping Rahm Emanuel as mayor.

IT’S DEFINITELY THE kind of place that would want to celebrate the concept of organized labor. Which is why they felt compelled to get the jump on celebrating the holiday.

Pullman, the home of Labor Day?

That, and the fact that there is an event scheduled in the nearby 9^th Ward, the Pullman neighborhood to be exact, that will take place on Monday. I’m sure that having competing Labor Day celebrations in neighboring wards (literally on opposite sides of Lake Calumet) would have seemed like a bit much.

Where in Pullman, the people like to remember that the remains of the one-time railcar factory was also the scene of a strike that some like to think of as the origins of celebrating Labor Day as an official holiday to begin with.

Unless you think it’s just another excuse to pull out the barbecue grill one more time before the weather goes bad and cook up some burgers; or steaks if you feel like splurging. Or turkey dogs if you’re some sort of health freak!

  -30-

Do we need a lieutenant gov?

It’s a perennial issue – as in someone always introduces it before the General Assembly, there’s a bit of debate, then it fades away from consideration until some future year.

The second-in-command at the Capitol Complex is one of the least-powerful people imaginable

Specifically, I’m referring to the continued effort to do away with the position of Illinois lieutenant governor. State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, has introduced a measure that ultimately would create a voter referendum.

LET THE PUBLIC decide if we ought to have a specific individual designated as the governor-in-waiting, in the event that something happens to drive the current governor from office.

There are those people who argue that the lieutenant governor’s position is a waste of money. It has no assigned duties, other than whatever the governor is willing to let the person do.

Some lieutenant governors literally accomplish nothing on their own – remember the tales of how then-lieutenant governor Patrick Quinn went for more than a year without speaking to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, because the governor so thoroughly cut him out of the loop of what was taking place in government.

McSweeney argues that ultimately doing away with the position would save the $1.6 million that was included in the last state budget for the position – whose only real responsibility is to be alive and thriving in the event that something happens to the governor.

SUCH AS BACK in 2009 when Blagojevich was impeached, and much of  the certainty over removing the governor from office was because it was known who would take over.

There wouldn’t be any political power plays of people trying to undermine each other to become the governor. On the very day that Blagojevich was removed from office by the Illinois Senate, Quinn took the oath of office to finish that term, then win one of his own back in 2010.

Which is actually the reason I think it is misguided to erase the position. I realize the Illinois constitution provides a line of succession in the event of dramatic circumstances that force even a lieutenant governor out of office – which has never happened in Illinois.

It would be the state attorney general who gets to be first in line. But I can already hear the outrage in my mind that would be expressed if that were to happen now.

WOULD IT BE right for the current governor, Bruce Rauner, to be replaced by Lisa Madigan – not only an opposing Democrat but the daughter of Rauner’s main government opponent, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan?

I’m sure Michael Madigan wouldn’t mind that scenario – although I suspect if he really wanted his daughter to be the governor, he’d have run her for office in the 2014 election cycle.

Perhaps it makes sense that the governor have some say in picking who replaces him to finish out a term – if that becomes necessary. Although an argument can be made that he ought to nominate his running mate – similar to how presidential candidates pick their would-be vice presidents.

Because the current system of having lieutenant governor candidates run independently always creates the situation for hostile pairings. The classic case of that was when Republican Richard Ogilvie served as governor with Democrat Paul Simon as his running mate.

SOME MIGHT EVEN use the Blagojevich/Quinn pairing as an odd match – although what the current system usually creates is a case for weak candidates who can’t win any other position deciding they’ll slip in the back door of government by running for lieutenant governor!

Some might even say our current lieutenant governor, Evelyn Sanguinetti, is the classic example. She had never held electoral office outside of municipal government in Wheaton before she was tabbed by Rauner, who used his influence to get her the 2014 election victory.

All in all, changing the lieutenant governor set-up would be a sure-fire headache inducer. People would be bound to find fault to matter what is done.

Which might be the ultimate reason to leave well enough alone!

  -30-

Is idea of shifting public notices off newspapers all about keeping secrets?

It is a concept I have heard so many times that I don’t know whom to attribute the idea to – If you want to keep something secret, you ought to just post it somewhere on the Internet.

SANGUINETTI: What else will she do?

Because there’s so much gobbledygook and garbage out there accumulated on assorted website that here’s a good chance no one will ever read your particular notice.

AFTER ALL, THERE’S so much other stuff to occupy the public attention. Probably stuff that’s so much more titillating than the boring, dry information that might have public significance, but just doesn’t compare to that piece about “80’s teen stars and what they look like now” some three decades later.

So excuse me if I don’t think much of the suggestion that Illinois law do away with the requirements that governments be required to publish public notices about upcoming activity in their local newspapers.

These people claim it would be so much more efficient to put notices on their own government websites. They also try to claim that the only people who have objections are the publishers of some of the dinkier newspapers in the state – for whom the revenue they get for publishing such ads can be a significant part of their income.

Which they wrongly try to portray as the state being forced to subsidize the press. A whole lot of hooey, if you ask me.

NOW I’LL BE the first to admit that while I try to read as many newspapers as possible and have been known to read some rather obscure parts of the paper, I rarely pay much attention to those legal notices that get published.

I doubt I’m alone. Requiring that the notices be published in the local papers probably isn’t the most efficient way to spread the word about what actions are upcoming at the local levels of government.

But that’s mostly because of the laziness of the public, many of whom wouldn’t pay close attention to their local happenings if the notices were right on Page One.
 

Would you rather read a legal notice, or see Demi's bikini shot

Those people, of course, will then complain that it’s the laziness of the press in not keeping them informed about the actions they didn’t known enough to ask about.

WHICH ALSO IS a drawback to finding out information on the Internet. Many people use search functions to try to find relevant copy to the issues that intrigue their curiosity.

But those search functions are so crude in the way they view things. They are ultimate evidence that computers are dumb – only as smart as the people who use them.

I can envision many instances where a government would post something in an obscure portion of their website and no one would ever notice it. Which is probably the real goal of this particular measure that was recommended by Lt Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti’s task force on government consolidation.

That, and perhaps she’s envisioning some sort of payback to the newspaper industry as a whole for all the smart-aleck reporter-types who think she’s a political and intellectual lightweight.

I REALLY THINK it would be too easy for governments to use their websites to hide information in part because of my own experiences as a reporter-type in using government websites to gain some of the bare information they offer now.

Government units like to use their websites to promote the summer festivals or announcements about changes in trash pickup. The idea of using them to let people know when public hearings are to be held or when contracts are up for consideration is something they would rather not bother with.

Heck, I know some governments that claim to post their City Council or Village Board agendas, but are as much as a year behind. Others can’t even be bothered to keep up pretenses. So say what you want about the idea of nobody reading legal notices in the newspaper – at least it’s an outside entity.

Do you really trust your local government to have that much say over telling you what they’re up to?

  -30-

If this is Linus, how harsh would Lucy be on a 'Super Bowl Sunday?'

I felt fortunate to have a dead Sunday, as in a day in which I had nothing that absolutely had to be done that day.

I was able to get away with staying at home all day without having to cope with Winter Storm Linus – the heavy snowfall that swept through the Midwestern United States this weekend and whacked Chicago with potentially a foot of snow within a day-long period.

LIKE MANY OTHERS, I could not help but remember the old Peanuts cartoon where Linus was one of Charlie Brown’s most loyal friends, unlike older sister Lucy who was amongst Charlie’s biggest antagonists.

If this were Winter Storm Lucy, I’d probably have had some business dealing that absolutely had to get done, and I’d wind up stuck in the snow somewhere!

As it was, my brother tried to make a short drive, and wound up stuck in the snow for a short time – although he eventually was able to get his car out of the snow and parked back in his usual spot where he leaves it.

As a result, he wound up spending the bulk of the day catching up on rest – while also enjoying caldo de pollo (a rather elaborate Mexican-style chicken soup) he had made just the day before.

SUNDAY WOUND UP being the perfect day for leftovers – even though the weather wound up costing him a chance to go to a Super Bowl party.

Which may be the biggest local casualty of this particular storm; how many people had plans to go to one of these parties to see the Seattle Seahawks/New England Patriots football championship matchup only to be unable to make it because of the snowfall? Then again, how many people were unable to see the game because their electricity died (mine was out for about three hours during the afternoon)?

Or worse, how many people had pizza delivery jobs and wound up having to cope with the mess while trying to deliver a pie or two to someone’s Super Bowl celebration aspirations – which usually are more about eating junk food with friends and getting worked up over over-produced and over-rated commercials than it is about watching anything noteworthy from an athletic perspective! Perhaps Lou Malnati's had the right idea in deciding to close early Sunday -- even though it should have been one of their busiest days of the year!

Personally, I became aware of just how bad the snow was when I woke up Sunday and did my early-morning e-mail check to see that aides to Gov. Bruce Rauner had sent me a message informing me that his public appearance at St. Pius V parish in the Pilsen neighborhood was cancelled.

THE NEW GOVERNOR was supposed to go to Sunday morning mass with Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti – my guess is that he wanted to attend a Latino-oriented church with his Cuban-American running mate to show some sort of Latino solidarity.

For a politician to give up that kind of photo op means it must have been ugly weather. Although Rauner did include the Illinois Department of Transportation advisory that people avoid driving their cars on Sunday, “unless it’s necessary.”

Officially, the National Weather Service reported there were 8.5 inches of snow at O’Hare International Airport by Noon, with snow continuing to fall. Although it seems the farther south one goes, the heavier the pileup becomes.

Looking out my own front window while I write this commentary, I see a nearby “For Rent” sign totally covered in a pile of snow! Although we’re still at a stage where the snowfall looks clean and pretty.

AS PEOPLE TRY to drive through it, the snow will take on that dingy, dirty shade that we all eventually will have to try to shovel away. Although various weather forecasts claim we’re in for sunny skies in future days.

Here’s hoping that this truly melts away rather quickly and that “Linus” becomes just a faint memory a week from now.

Although perhaps having a Super Bowl Sunday with a storm named “Lucy” might have been most appropriate. Because we all remember Charlie Brown’s repeated attempts at a field goal.

Did she ever let Charlie Brown actually kick that ball?

  -30-

Quinn gets chance to create one last political headache for his critics

Pat Quinn has just over one month left in his time as governor, yet he’s going to create such a political firestorm. There’s just no way he could leave on a quiet note.

It is because of the death early Wednesday of Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka – one month before she was to be sworn in for her second term as head of the post that cuts the checks to pay the state’s bills.

BECAUSE OF THE fact that she’s in charge of the office that keeps state government running financially (the state treasurer oversees the state’s investments), there needs to be a comptroller to ensure the government keeps running.

So to those people who, for politically partisan reasons, want Quinn to sit back and do nothing and defer to Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner until he takes office Jan. 12, that ain’t a gonna happen.

Quinn gets to pick a new state comptroller to finish out the remainder of the term to which Topinka was elected to in 2010. None other than the Illinois Constitution gives him that authority.

Although ideologues usually don’t care what some stinkin’ piece of paper has to say – they’re going to rant and rage that Quinn has no right picking anybody because of his electoral loss in last month’s elections.

I ALREADY HAVE read assorted commentary about how, if Quinn does get to sign off on a “Comptroller for a Month” position, he ought to defer to whatever Rauner wants to do. Even though when then-Gov. James R. Thompson had a secretary of state appointment to fill in 1981 when Alan Dixon moved up to the U.S. Senate, he picked fellow Republican Jim Edgar for the post rather than respecting the fact that voters picked a Democrat for the post.

Which means the idea of respect for party politics isn’t going to happen. It’s ridiculous to presume it will happen.

You’d think the fact that Quinn’s appointment will only run through mid-January and that Rauner himself will take office with a major appointment to fill (who gets to be comptroller for the four-year term running through early 2019 that Topinka was just elected to) would please those people.

But it won’t. Some people, particularly those who are trying to rewrite state law to call for a special election, are just way too eager to pick issues to complain about.

I’M NOT ABOUT to predict here who’s going to become the new state comptroller – not for the next month, nor for the next four years.

I’ve heard the political wisecracks about how Quinn likely won’t pick Sheila Simon to fill the post that she ran for, and lost, last month. After all, her refusal to continue to serve as Quinn’s lieutenant governor was a fairly prominent snub – perhaps the biggest of the now-complete campaign season.

I’ve also heard the names of “Tom Cross,” “Dan Rutherford” and “Evelyn Sanguinetti” all tossed about as possible picks by Rauner, along with the possibility of putting Topinka's chief of staff in the constitutional post.

The idea being that Cross came so close to winning state election (running for treasurer) that he ought to get some sort of post, while Rutherford serving as state treasurer has some sense of what the state’s financial situation truly is.

THE IDEA OF Lt. Gov.-elect Sanguinetti as comptroller is the most amusing to me – one person suggests that it would save the state some money in salary because Rauner could then go without a lieutenant governor during his gubernatorial term.

Of course, if that happened and Rauner wound up being unable to finish his term in office, that would make state Attorney General Lisa Madigan next in line to become governor without having to be elected. A thought that I’m sure would make the ideologues wretch in disgust.

Personally, I'd rather have someone as inexperienced as Sanguinetti in a do-nothing position like lieutenant governor, than being in charge of making sure bills get paid close to being on time. But maybe that's just me.

It will be intriguing to see who Quinn picks for the “Comptroller for a Month” post. Somebody will get to be a state constitutional officer for 31 (or so) days.

SIMILAR TO THOSE people who remember the week-long stint that David Orr once served as Chicago mayor in between the death of Harold Washington and the appointment of Eugene Sawyer.

Which was only significant in that it makes him the answer to a trivia question for political geeks.

  -30-

It only takes one to win

I recall an Election Night back when I was at the old City News Bureau when one of my brand-new colleagues was confused about the vote-counting process – she didn’t get why there were still votes being counted on a Wednesday afternoon.

Me being the “old pro” (I think it was my second election cycle I covered), I knew about the assorted ballots that don’t actually get counted until days after Election Day.

ALTHOUGH THE VOTES that do get counted usually offer up a clear-enough picture of “Who won?!?” that nobody really cares about the exact total.

It takes an election cycle like the one currently taking place for Illinois treasurer to remind us that there’s a reason it matters that the official vote certification doesn’t take place until December (as in the 8^th, when the Illinois State Board of Elections will give us the final totals that will be recorded for political geek posterity).

For it has been just over a week since Election Day, and we don’t know yet who our new state treasurer is (although Republican Tom Cross has said he thinks it will be him, while Democrat Michael Frerichs says he’s not giving up).

I have noticed the Capitol Fax newsletter out of Springfield has put on its website a gadget that tries to give us the up-to-the-minute vote total. Although the fact that rural counties are doing nothing to update their total until the last possible minute means we really don’t know who won.

AS OF MID-DAY Tuesday, Cross allegedly had 1,671,018 votes to 1,670,526 votes for Frerichs. There also were 144,614 votes for Libertarian candidate Matthew Skopek.

When turned into the percentages that most people seem to prefer to think of, Cross has 47.93 percent of the vote to Frerichs’ 47.92 percent – with just over 4 percent for Skopek.

Considering that vote-by-mail ballots will stop being accepted on next week Tuesday, there are the prayers that an overwhelming Cook County vote (9,000 provisional ballots that have to be determined whether or not they are legitimate and count for anything) could somehow push Frerichs over the top.

Although there are others who think the fact that 101 rural counties went for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner means they could also provide just enough additional votes to withstand any gains made by Frerichs – who as a Champaign resident wasn’t exactly someone Chicago voters were going to take up the cause of as a political crusade.

IF CROSS, WHO supposedly was the favorite because of his name recognition – although I doubt most real people have any clue who the legislative leaders are, with the exception of Michael Madigan – winds up winning, it would be something of a gain for Republicans.

I have heard some political operatives go on and on about how this is now a Republican-leaning state government because four of the six state constitutional officers would be of the GOP persuasion (nobody voted for Lt. Gov.-elect Evelyn Sanguineti specifically, but she counts as an individual).

Which is probably the reason why Democratic political operatives would like to win the post. It would make this the election cycle in which the political parties traded posts, rather than lost anything.

Although I don’t know anyone who’d trade “governor” for “treasurer.”

I’M NOT ABOUT to predict how close this one will wind up – although I realize that it only takes a one-vote margin to win the post for the next four years.

Perhaps we’re on our way to an Illinois version of that 1948 election for the Senate from Texas – where Lyndon Johnson got his victory by 87 votes.

“Landslide Lyndon” has more of a ring to it than any kind of nickname that would get tagged to either Cross or Frerichs. Although I’m sure either one would eagerly take a lead – no matter how slim it appears to the public.

  -30-

EXTRA: Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner?

So how much change will Illinois government experience now that there is a governor of the opposition political party to the General Assembly?


Is the Statehouse Scene about to become the Bizarro-world version of the federal Congress, where a GOP Congress fights the chief executive.


WILL THE DEMS in the Legislature unite in opposition to a Gov. Bruce Rauner so as to keep him in his place and prevent his anti-organized labor attitude from running roughshod over the rights of workers?


Or is that a bit of overkill.


Personally, I noted the fact that Rauner's victory speech (about an hour after the Associated Press projected the era of the Mighty Quinn to be at an end) singled out the fact that he placed telephone calls to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton -- both D-Chicago.


He said he doesn't want to "fight" and "bicker" with the Legislature, but wants, "to find solutions ... to solve the problems facing Illinois."


OF COURSE, RAUNER also said he will, "work with anyone and everyone who shares the goals." As though he expects the Legislature to follow his lead.


That will be the big key to determining what state government will become like for the next four years.


Because to be honest, Quinn wasn't all that well liked by his fellow Democrats in state government. Madigan often regarded the governor as being weak and capable of being pushed around, and that attitude trickled down to the rank-and-file of the General Assembly.


So maybe Madigan can work with Rauner, particularly since this election result now makes him the undisputed most powerful Democrat in state government -- rather than having to defer authority to a governor of his same political party.


IT WAS AMUSING to hear state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, talk about the issue with WMAQ-TV. Of the Legislature, Lang said, "we'll work with anybody."


But he also said that it is Rauner who's going to have to moderate the anti-union talk that had organized labor all so riled up during both the primary and general election cycles this year.


""If he doesn't do that, we'll have four years of gridlock" just like the activity on Capitol Hill, Lang said.


So what led to an apparent Rauner victory?


IT SEEMS THAT Rauner got the roughly 20 percent of the Chicago vote he was hoping for (21 percent and kept Quinn to 52 percent of the suburban Cook County vote.


Which makes one wonder how well he actually did amongst African-American voters. James Oberweis, in conceding his defeat for U.S. Senate, said he thinks he and Rauner achieved something significant in actively campaigning in South and West side black neighborhoods in Chicago.


"We showed that campaigning in African-American communities is possible" for Republican candidates, Oberweis said.


There also was an ethnic "first." Ecuadorean/Cuban-American Evelyn Sanguinetti becomes the first Latina elected to a statewide government post with her win over Democrat Paul Vallas to be lieutenant governor.


NOT THAT HER presence added that much to the campaign cycle. So little that while she tried making her own victory speech Tuesday night, every Chicago television station broke away from her ramble so they could broadcast Quinn.


Who, as it turns out, is not about to concede until every single vote is counted -- a process that could take the bulk of the week to complete.


Quinn tried to show some spunk (which reminds me of actor Ed Asner as Lou Grant telling Mary Richards "You've got spunk. I hate spunk!") when he told his followers, "our government of the many takes on the government of the money."


Although Rauner tried to put his own spin on Tuesday night's victory by saying, "This is the victory for every family in Illinois."


  -30-

Pol cheap shots a sign of a mini-mind?

I’m not about to get all worked up over Republican lieutenant governor nominee Evelyn Sanguinetti for her apparent cheap-shot against the rural part of Illinois – and her efforts this week to make it appear she didn’t mean anything by it.

For one thing, it would be hypocritical.

I KNOW FOR a fact that I have made my share of snide comments implying that the rest of Illinois (the land that lies beyond the outermost suburbs of Chicago) is somehow lacking in civilization.

Which is nothing compared to the cheap-shots that often emanate from rural residents when referring to the Chicago portion of Illinois – which has become so dominant in recent years that it is the real reason someone like Bruce Rauner will take the overwhelming share of the non-Chicago vote come the Nov. 4 election for governor.

Borderline-lame pot shots at each other may at times be the glue that holds the regions of Illinois together – because it compels us to remember that we are one state, and not a batch of regions that wish they could be a part of surrounding states.

Sanguinetti apparently made a pot-shot in the past while inquiring about the possibility of a government job. The Lee Enterprises newspaper chain reported recently about an e-mail message she sent on the issue, trying to end it with a laugh by writing, “Isn’t cow tipping a work requirement in Springfield (LOL).”

IT’S A DUMB gag, although the part that offends me the most is that “(LOL)” she felt compelled to add to the end.

As though she thought she had to tell people they were supposed to laugh. If the gag had truly been humorous, their laughter would have been spontaneous, and apparent.

Then again, maybe I’m just that old grouch who dislikes the idea of “LOL” being put into any e-mail. Just like I don’t like those people who put smiley faces and other gimmicky symbols (such as “;)”) into an e-mail.

Sanguinetti took the appearance that she was insulting rural Illinois (she’s a suburban DuPage County-type person, a Wheaton village trustee to be exact) seriously enough that she felt compelled to say nice things about the Illinois capital city when she was on hand for the fair-type events.

WHICH MADE HER look rather trivial overall. No wonder that recent poll showed that when people were asked what they thought of the lieutenant governor candidates, they far preferred Democrat Paul Vallas to Sanguinetti.

Maybe Gov. Pat Quinn owes any November victory to Vallas. Or more likely, few people bother to give the lieutenant governor nominees much thought when they go into the voting booth to pick a preference for governor.

Although the part of all this that bothers me the most is the fact that Quinn felt so compelled to pick up on this issue – rather than just let Sanguinetti twist in the wind with her own trivial nonsense.

The Chicago Sun-Times on Friday reported that Quinn said, “I think she should apologize for those disrespectful remarks. This isn’t the right way to talk about any cow in Illinois. We’re proud of our cows. They’re the best that ever was. She ought to say she’s sorry to a bunch of cows.”

WHY DO I suspect the spirit of Robin Williams was lingering nearby, and shuddering at Quinn’s attempt to engage in such lame humor?

It also reminds me of the 1960s anti-war activists who once satirically nominated “Pigasus” for president (“If we can’t have him in the White House, we can have him for breakfast,” the Yippies said) to show their contempt for the establishment candidates.

Does this mean we can nominate a cow for governor – on the grounds that he’d have more sense (and may even smell better) than either Rauner or Quinn?

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Illinois GOP wants votes so bad, they’re willing to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (in their own way, of course)

I didn’t make it out to any events this year celebrating the May 5 holiday about Mexicans showing their national pride and ability to stand with the major powers of the world.

SANGUINETTI: GOP's "big" May 5 name

But there was one event I wish I could have made it out to – the one in which the Illinois Republican Party took a shot Monday night at praising Mexico – while also using the party at the River North neighborhood Hub 51 club to raise money for their political candidates come Nov. 4.

NOW MY DESIRE to have been there isn’t so much that I wanted to see Republican political types make fools of themselves while plopping sombreros on their heads and trying to chance “Viva Mexico!” without sounding too lame.

Democratic politicos are just as capable of being ridiculous when they do those things to try to get Latino votes.

What caught my attention was that their Cinco de Mayo event was being used as a political fundraiser. Yet as far as I could tell, none of the “top dog” candidates of this year’s GOP ticket were bothering to show.

Not Bruce Rauner, the gubernatorial nominee. Nor James Oberweis, who is theoretically the ‘top of the ticket’ with his bid for the U.S. Senate. Of course, with Oberweis’ past record of talking about immigration issues, his presence would have created too much potential for saying something stupid – even if he now claims he regrets that “commercial” in a decade old campaign for public office.

THE ONE WHERE he flew over Soldier Field and talked about how all the dreaded “illegal aliens” could fill the stadium each and every day?!?

Were Republicans focusing on that long-ago battle near Puebla ...

Actually, the best they could get was Evelyn Sanguinetti.

Before you say “Who?!?,” she’s Rauner’s running mate. She’s the lieutenant governor nominee. She’s also of Ecuadoran and Cuban ethnic origins, and raised amongst the Cuban exile community in Miami. Not exactly the perspective of the bulk of Illinois’ 2 million-plus Latinos.

... or consuming too many of these?

Which makes it appear as though Republicans value the governor backup as the person who goes to the events they’d rather not be seen at. Although there is the fact that Sanguinetti does speak Spanish (remember her phrases from the Election Night victory speech?).

SO MAYBE SHE was able to say something that wasn’t silly, while other Republican partisans drank margaritas and wrote out sizable checks to give Republican candidates some cash with which to campaign (so that Rauner doesn’t have to self-fund 100 percent of this year’s election cycle – even though he could afford to, if he had to).

The list of people who were hoped to attend did include some Spanish-tinged names, which makes me think Camp Rauner wants to create the image he’s appealing to some Latinos in the way that he’s trying to appeal to the African-American vote.

Which is more geared toward getting a few black people to vote for him, while many others just wind up deciding they could care less about this year’s election cycle.

Anything that cuts into the potential vote tally for Gov. Pat Quinn is a benefit to him.

IT IS THE reason that Rauner began running a series of television spots (although I have to confess to not having seen any of them on an actual television set, but only through the Capitol Fax newsletter’s website) whose common theme is that the people featured in them are not white.

SANCHEZ: Is his grudge universal?

One of them gives us Manny Sanchez, who identifies himself as the former co-chair in Illinois for Latinos for Obama, then says Rauner is, “the right, and the perfect, and the optimal” candidate for Illinois governor this year.

He doesn’t mention the fact that he was the guy who got dumped on by Quinn a couple of years ago when Quinn wanted to shift control of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to himself and Sanchez stood in the way.

I get the fact that Sanchez is peeved, potentially feels a grudge, and would be looking for a way to undermine the governor. He’s being legitimate when he speaks about not supporting Quinn.

WE JUST SHOULDN’T presume that his view in any way represents a sizable share of the Latino electorate in Illinois.

And Republican operatives shouldn’t presume that because the party used a Mexican holiday to try to raise money for themselves without sending the big-name candidates that the Latino electorate is on the verge of making a massive shift in support away from the Democratic Party candidates.

It’s going to take a lot more than that to win over significant numbers of Latino voters – much more than I believe the GOP would ever be willing to offer.

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Lt. Gov.: The fight for Number 2; or, Why would anybody want it that badly?

It’s official now; all the Republican candidates seeking to challenge Gov. Pat Quinn in next year’s election cycle have a running mate.

SIMON: Any regrets?

Not that anybody of any significance thinks that holding the second-in-command position of Illinois state government is worth more than the proverbial “bucket of warm spit.”

THE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES are getting no-names for running mates – people who hope that holding this nothing position for four years could mean they somehow get positioned to run for a real office with significant duties in the future.

Although it is possible to screw up such a situation.

Take the circumstances surrounding our current lieutenant governor – Sheila Simon publicly split from Quinn many months ago, and has said she wants to run a bid for Illinois comptroller.

Which puts her up against incumbent Judy Baar Topinka – a long-time office-holder who’s just different enough from the ideologue Republicans that she can win statewide office even in a Democratic Party-leaning state.

CONSIDERING THAT QUINN is a 99.9999999999 percent shoo-in to win the Democratic nomination for governor (or am I being overly generous in saying that Tio Hardiman has a 0.0000000001 percent chance of winning?), he could have easily kept Simon at his side.

Instead, she’s a likely loser to Topinka – and may well have built up enough ill-will toward her that she will soon be a political has-been!

SANGUINETTI: DuPage powerhouse?

The funny part is that nobody seems to want to be paired up with Quinn – even though he’s a primary election lock for victory and has a very good chance of winning the general election in November 2014 IF he can play himself positively off the nasty negative partisanship that can all too easily tie up the Republican campaigns.

The only stories and tidbits we hear are from the people who don’t want to be Number 2 on the Democratic ticket.

TRACY: Bolstering Dillard?

NOBODY HAS A clue who will be paired up with Quinn.

So long as the Democratic ticket is “Quinn/_____________,” he can’t even start circulating nominating petitions to get his campaign on the ballot.

It also further enhances the notion that this election cycle is about the Republican candidates, and that Quinn is an after-thought – a concept that could undermine the advantages of incumbency that Quinn is counting on to get himself a second full four-year term as governor.

RODRIGUEZ: A step up?

Then again, GOP chaos could be intense enough to overcome that factor. Who’s to say how the voters will feel 13 months from now?

PERHAPS IT IS because Quinn himself is a former lieutenant governor (one of the few who actually got to ascend to the top post) that he’s not all worked up over picking a running mate.

After all, he’s the lieutenant governor who had it become public knowledge that his governor openly ignored him – going more than a full year without speaking to him about anything.

Part of that was just the bizarre behavior of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Although it also shows how the post can be relegated to irrelevance. For her part, Simon has spent her time touring Illinois and visiting community colleges – but even that has to get old.

KIM: The Lt. Gov. top dog?

It may be why Democrats aren’t eager to be a running mate – even if it means being on a winning ticket.

WHICH IS WHY I find it curious to see the field of candidates on the Republican side of the equation; all of whom are eager enough to be a “nothing” politico in hopes that it will mean something someday.

From the newcomer to the group, Wheaton alderman Evelyn Sanguinetti, whom Bruce Rauner picked to help him steal away DuPage County votes from opponent Kirk Dillard, to state Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy (paired with Dillard), former Long Grove village President Maria Rodriguez (paired with William Brady) and Steve Kim (paired with Dan Rutherford).

When Kim comes across as the most experienced just because he ran a token campaign for Illinois attorney general in 2010, you know this is a fringe collection of characters who want to be Number 2.

A post the Dems can’t seem to find anyone to fill.

  -30-