Chicago, IL — This week, the Rauner administration fell apart. As Illinois families continue to suffer from the damage done by his manufactured budget crisis, Rauner took it upon himself to clean house. In place of loyal staffers, Rauner brought on a team of untested, and seemingly unvetted radicals. It hasn’t gone well. Between hirin’ and firin’ new staff, ignorin’ a natural disaster, and takin’ Illinois public schools hostage, Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership captured the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Let’s take a look at Rauner’s week in review:
MONDAY
Monday began with Bruce Rauner hiring, and subsequently firing, a body man he personally interviewed after his homophobic, sexist, and racist tweets were discovered.
From Politico, Rauner fires staffer with history of homophobic tweets:
‘I’d f— her teeth straight,’ said one. ‘To the Indian people in the library: SHUT THE F— UP!,’ said another by the Twitter account belonging to Ben Tracy, who was hired to serve as the staffer who travels with the governor, handle scheduling and other duties. […]
He repeatedly used the word “faggot” and in one, says “I bet you liked that #fag,” responding to someone who tweeted: “saying insanity bent me over and raped me would be an understatement.”
TUESDAY
Tuesday, Rauner’s freshly-fired body man ended up the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times. That story is here: ‘Body’ slam: Rauner aide fired for ‘unacceptable’ tweets—on first day
Possibly distracted by an administration in chaos, Rauner neglected to respond to flooding that had been ravaging northern Illinois. When he finally chose to make an appearance days later local Representative Sam Yingling wasn’t having it.
From Rep. Sam Yingling’s op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, Bruce Rauner doesn’t care:
After I publicly requested that he declare Lake County a disaster area and called on my constituents to urge him to take action, the governor acquiesced.
But by then, the damage had been done, and people of my district had had a front-row seat to a phenomenon I’ve seen play out so many times since Rauner took office: When we need real leadership, Bruce Rauner displays callous disregard for people across Illinois, including those in my district. Rauner should leave the job of governing this state to someone else if he’s unable to focus on the needs of Illinois’ communities.
Later that day, criticism of the Governor shifted to his unyielding desire to create crisis, most recently by planning to veto the school funding bill.
From Eric Zorn’s Chicago Tribune column, Rauner lurches from crisis to crisis:
But neither joy nor heartbreak have evidently altered the governor’s enthusiasm for brinkmanship. He’s now threatening to veto key elements of an education funding bill — a bill that gave him 90 percent of what he wanted, according to his education chief — because he feels it’s too generous to the teetering Chicago Public Schools.
As long as that appropriation is in limbo, local districts throughout the state won’t get their general education aid from Springfield and fall school openings and long-term operations will be in jeopardy.
Ominously, in the past week he has fired or accepted the resignations of many of his more politically moderate foot soldiers and, through a series of new hires, transformed his administration into an arm of the rigidly ideological Illinois Policy Institute. It’s a signal that he still thinks it better to seek leverage than compromise, and that crisis will serve him better than resolution.
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, Rauner’s staff problems continued when it was discovered a new communications staffer compared a woman’s right to choose to Nazi eugenics.
From the Chicago Sun-Times, New Rauner hire compared abortion to Nazi eugenics in blog post:
One of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s new communications aides has argued that abortion is being used “to rid the world of disabled and other ‘unwanted’ persons” — comparing it to Nazi Germany.
Communications specialist Brittany Carl has also taken on organized labor in her on-line posts, contending that teachers unions should be dissolved.
But that wasn’t the only staffer under fire Wednesday. Yet another member of the Rauner administration ran into trouble for some strongly-worded tweets.
From Politico, New hires create minefield for Illinois governor:
A second newly-hired communications specialist, Meghan Keenan, deleted her Twitter account just after she was hired Monday as a $45,000-a-year communications specialist for Rauner’s office. But POLITICO has obtained screenshots of her tweets questioning climate change, calling for defunding the Affordable Care Act, and seeming to support the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, saying “religious objections can actually expand access to abortion, birth control, etc.”
THURSDAY
By Thursday, Rauner was facing mounting criticism for the social conservative takeover of his administration. Between his plans to veto HB 40, his assault on women’s healthcare, and his defense of his radical staffers, Rauner’s claim to have “no social agenda” was exposed as a lie.
From Rep. Sara Feigenholtz’s letter in the Chicago Sun-Times, ‘Rauner hoodwinked moderates’:
In 2013 Bruce Rauner introduced himself to Illinois voters as a moderate, pro-choice Republican with no social agenda. Rauner hoodwinked moderates by flip-flopping and announcing he’d veto House Bill 40 on abortion, showing the pro-choice people of Illinois his true anti-choice colors. If lying to women weren’t enough — in just one week, Rauner’s newly minted right-wing staff managed to insult Jews, women, the LGBTQ community and people of color.
FRIDAY
Bringing the week full circle, Bruce Rauner got flustered when asked about the firing of his body man and blamed his staff for the whole ordeal.
From Capitol Fax, Rauner professes ignorance, shifts blame for one-day body man to staff:
He didn’t know his own body man’s role? He’s only had a body man since the campaign. Perhaps he just doesn’t want to admit that he has a taxpayer-financed valet. And, by the way, there’s nothing wrong with having a body man. They play an important role.
Also, reporters have claimed, including myself, that sources have said Rauner interviewed Tracy. A governor who doesn’t interview his own potential body man is a pretty darned stupid governor. After all, a governor will be with the guy (or woman) hours and hours every day, sometimes seven days a week. So, I find that claim truly difficult to believe.
Also, great move throwing the new staff under the bus on this topic. Same as it ever was. Nothing is ever this man’s fault.
To top it all off, Rauner was then caught lying about interviewing the now-fired staffer.
From NBC 5 Chicago, Rauner Claims He Didn’t Interview Fired ‘Body Man,’ Sources Disagree:
A week after an aide to Gov. Bruce Rauner was fired over “unacceptable tweets” found on his Twitter page, Rauner said he never interviewed him.
Rauner told reporters Friday he met with Ben Tracy once before Tracy was chosen to fill the role as a close assistant or “body man” to the governor but he said last Friday’s meeting wasn’t an interview.
Sources close to the administration tell Ward Room the governor did interview him and any claims to the contrary are false. But the role is a personal one, they said, as he’s required to be with the governor closely.
Indeed, it was a very bad week for Bruce Rauner.
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