Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner says common perceptions about him have it all wrong: he's not against unions and he doesn't want to take away public workers' pensions. Rauner was in Springfield Tuesday for a Sangamon County Republican Foundation fundraiser.
Unions worked hard to prevent Rauner from getting the GOP nomination --- and why not. He constantly talked during the primary about how "government union bosses" were to blame for much of Illinois' ills.
But since he became the nominee, I've yet to hear him publicly use the phrase. I asked him:
REPORTER: "Why not?"
RAUNER: "Um, you know what, we have many issue and what we've got to talk about in the general election is bringing everybody together to solve problems. SO I'm going to reach out to every constituent group. Every voting bloc. And bring them together to solve problems.”
REPORTER: "Including unions in some way?"
RAUNER: "Absolutely."
Rauner says he's already reaching out to labor -- like to a major teachers union that he says should be more receptive to him than Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn because, he says, Quinn has been a "massive failure" on education.
