Dillard, Brady spar; Rauner apologizes
SPRINGFIELD — His campaign crippled by sexual harassment allegations, state Treasurer Dan Rutherford bemoaned how Illinois politics has become a “blood sport” — but otherwise was a nonfactor in Tuesday’s debate among the four-way GOP field for governor.
Instead, state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale and state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington were the ones drawing blood against each other — and front-runner Bruce Rauner — in a bid to assume Rutherford’s one-time role as the main alternative to the private equity investor from Winnetka.
Rauner, meanwhile, played it cautiously by inflicting no barbs on his GOP opponents and whisking himself out a back entrance from the Springfield theater the moment the debate ended, thus avoiding any encounters with reporters. The three other candidates stuck around for questions.
During the debate, Rauner’s most significant statement was an apology to a Springfield newspaper reporter for making completely conflicting statements in several media interviews about allegedly clouting his daughter into the prestigious Walter Payton College Prep high school in Chicago by calling President Barack Obama’s education secretary.
“I apologize to you for being incorrect,” Rauner told debate panelist Bernie Schoenburg, a columnist for Springfield’s State Journal-Register who had quoted Rauner completely denying asking for help for his daughter from Arne Duncan. “Frankly, my memory is not clear, and I honestly thought I hadn’t talked to Arne.”
Rauner, who was quoted in other interviews acknowledging he had spoken with the former Chicago Public Schools CEO about the matter, said his wife, Diane Rauner, corrected him about the discussion he had with Duncan.
“The fact is it was a minor issue because we didn’t ask for any special favors,” Rauner said.
Dillard, the most aggressive of any candidate at the hourlong Citizens Club of Springfield debate, ridiculed Rauner for his evolving position on the Payton Prep controversy and for a series of other issues.
“I’ll give Mr. Rauner a pass tonight on pay-to-play,” Dillard said sarcastically, before outlining Rauner’s hiring of convicted influence peddler and ex-state pension board member Stuart Levine as a consultant and Rauner’s $300,000 contribution to former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, before Rauner’s investment company got a boost in pension funds from that state.
Dillard, who Friday won an endorsement from the Illinois Education Association, also tore into Brady for voting on tax increment finance district legislation that Dillard said financially benefited the Bloomington Republican and for initiating a 2010 bill to allow animal shelters to kill rabid strays en masse.
“The demise of his campaign began with an idea that he had to mass euthanize animals. That began the drumbeat that made him a vulnerable candidate,” Dillard said, outlining how Brady’s 2010 gubernatorial run began unraveling almost from the get-go.
Later, Brady got in his licks against both Dillard and Rauner.
Rutherford remained entirely out of the line of fire from opponents while addressing the sexual harassment complaint against him from a former male employee.
“I see Illinois now in the worst blood sport I’ve ever seen it,” he said. “This is not easy to stand up and run here in the state of Illinois.”