By Mark Garrity
One word he used repeatedly in that speech to the IMA is “perseverance”. He plans to ride this out – no matter the cost to taxpayers, or the kids who may have to drop out of college without their grants, or seniors who will lose their community care services that keep them in their own homes and out of very expensive nursing homes – unless he gets his way. There’s no reason not to believe him.
He thinks he can buy himself a legislature that will give him everything he wants next November. He certainly will be able to outspend us in 2016 just like he did in 2014. Ken Griffin, the richest man in Illinois, gave him $13.6 million dollars in the last election cycle. That’s more than all the unions put together gave Pat Quinn so it’s pretty daunting. But what Rauner and his incredibly rich friends can’t buy is good people to enact bad laws. They can’t buy the votes of people who believe in democracy and government that can and should be a force for good in people’s lives. We will have to outwork and outlast him. We can do that. We’ve done it before.