By Mark Rhoads -
It is not the headline of the Tribune poll that should worry the handlers of Bruce Rauner because horse race numbers change all the time and Quinn did outspend Rauner by almost two to one on Chicago media during August in an effort to play catch up.
But what should worry the Rauner camp is the fact that the internals of the Tribune poll indicate that "voters view the governor as more trustworthy than his opponent." You usually only get one chance to make a first impression and even if voters think Quinn is a failure in most ways, if they nevertheless think he can be trusted more than Rauner then Rauner has a major problem that is tough to correct by Nov. 4th.
In spite of Bruce Rauner's personal wealth and business success, he is still running for office for the first time and is making some of the familiar mistakes that first-time candidates often make. One of those mistakes is to follow the advice of handlers who think tailoring positions to polling data and forgetting about any enduring principles is a winning strategy. It is not, and the Tribune internals on the trust problem for Rauner confirm that.
