By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Governor Bruce Rauner is intensifying his attacks on his Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker, with less than three weeks to go before the election. Rauner, who trails Pritzker in most polls by double digit margins, referred to the billionaire Democrat as a “Mercedes Marxist”, in an interview on the “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” on WLS.
“He’s proposing eleven billion in new spending, he’s a Mercedes Marxist, he’s a radical leftist, he’s proposing a massive new income tax hike and it’s gonna crush the middle class as well as job creators in this state.”
Rauner reacted to the recent racial discrimination lawsuit filed against Pritzker by several of the Democrat’s current and former staffers. He said the allegations reminded him of some of the racially insensitive things Pritzker said by phone in 2008 to now imprisoned ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, in secret FBI wiretaps that were leaked to the Chicago Tribune.
“We shouldn’t be surprised by this lawsuit,” Rauner said. “You know when Pritzker was caught on FBI wiretaps years ago when he was trying to buy political office from Rod Blagojevich, trying to buy the Senate seat with his inherited billions, he used the language of racists, and he specifically called black elected officials offensive. Pritzker clearly has a mindset that is consistent with this racial discrimination that he’s apparently being accused of. These allegations are serious, and I think the people of Illinois deserve to know the truth about what’s been going on there.”
Pritzker has referred to Rauner as a “failure”, given the lengthy budget impasse and the worsening Illinois financial condition during Rauner’s first term. Rauner has also been weighed down by President Donald Trump’s unpopularity in solidly Democratic Illinois.
The Governor told WLS he credits Trump when appropriate, but is not afraid to criticize him.
“I think some of the rhetoric and some of the personal behavior, you know, it’s just not appropriate, it’s just wrong. I called him out on his comments about the tragedy in Charlottesville. I called him out on some of the language he’s used to refer to women he’s interacted with in various ways, it’s just wrong. I also thought it was wrong to separate families at the border.”
Adding to Rauner’s problems is the fact that he angered many conservatives by signing a bill expanding abortion rights in Illinois. Polls have shown that Conservative party Gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann is eating into Rauner’s support, as is Libertarian candidate Grayson “Kash” Jackson.
@ 2018 WLS-AM News
