Ives campaigns leading up to March 20th primary | Chicago Tribune photo
WHEATON - The reason State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) is challenging incumbent GOP Governor Bruce Rauner is not so much that she wanted the hard work that comes with a primary challenge, but more because of how he betrayed the people that put him into his first elected office ever in 2014.
That's a clear theme of Scott Reeder's profile on Ives in the latest Illinois Times edition.
“Governor Rauner ran as a conservative, without understanding conservatives, which is why – to him – I am a ‘fringe’ candidate. Rauner ran as a conservative, without respecting conservative values, which is why – to him – Trump and his supporters are ‘deplorable,’" Ives said in a statement Reeder used.
“[Rauner] doesn’t understand us. He doesn’t respect us. That is why it was so easy for him to betray us. No matter what he says now that he has a real conservative challenge in this race, it is just more lies and ‘fake news’ from Governor Rauner,” she said.
Ives, whose Rauner's ads portray as being put up to challenging him by House Speaker Mike Madigan, is certainly battling uphill. Rauner has $55 million to spend on mailers, ads and campaign staff. Ives is severely limited financially compared to Rauner, but money doesn't mean a whole lot to Republican base voters. They're looking for someone that will implement the IL GOP platform. Rauner has ignored the IL GOP Platform - and if he wins the Illinois GOP primary, many expect him to use his political muscle to water it down when the IL GOP convenes again.
Reeder puts the race into perspective with quotes from Kent Redfield,a retired political science professor from the University of Illinois Springfield, who says:
“Rauner is sending out mailers that are absolute falsehoods about Ives. He is saying she is [House Speaker] Mike Madigan’s best buddy. And that is nonsense. The danger she faces is if she doesn’t have enough money to answer back to these lies. If that is the case, then she will get buried by the spending.”
The accusations have struck a nerve with Ives.
“They are flat-out lies. Every Republican in the legislature and most of the Democrats know how hard I have fought Mike Madigan’s agenda. I am no fan of what he has done to this state. Bruce Rauner is telling one lie after another about me. Is it having an effect? Sure, it is. We have to be able to respond. I believe the truth will come out.”
Redfield said if Ives were to win the governorship, she would be the most conservative person to have served in that office for at least 50 years.
Read the rest of Reeder's profile HERE.
