For several years I have been writing about Illinois party politics as Bizarro World.
As a kid Bizarro World was one of my favorite comic books. It portrayed a world in which all assumptions were turned inside out and upside down.
It has prepared me for life as an adult in Illinois, a land where Democrats are Republicans and Republicans are crazy.
In Illinois our Democratic Governor is the most anti-labor politician to sleep in the Governor’s Mansion in half a century. His relationship with the state’s unionized employees can only be described as adversarial. Squeezy claims he was put on this earth to destroy public employee pensions and will unless the courts act to stop him.
I will pull a Democratic Party ballot in the March primary so I can vote for Will Guzzardi for 39th District House Representative against Toni Berrios. I will vote against Iris Martinez, my State Senator, who voted for SB 1 because she knew it was unconstitutional. Huh.
If nothing else I will write in Ralph Martire’s name for State Senator. I will write Ralph’s name in for Governor. I will write Ralph’s name in against anyone who even pauses when thinking about cutting pensions.
The rumor is that the IEA leadership will skip an endorsement for Governor on the Democratic side in the primary. They might endorse somebody on the Republican side. That would have to be Kirk Dillard who voted no on SB 1 or Dan Rutherford, the state Treasurer who was for it before he was against it. Dillard started out as what they call a moderate Republican but has slid further to the right as the Illinois Party turned more Tea Party crazy.
I don’t know any teacher who is considering voting for Bruce Rauner.
Special Education advocate and frequent contributor to this blog Bev Johns explains why:
Republican/sometimes funder of Democrats Bruce Rauner has made his fortune partly from TRS, but now wants to abolish defined teacher pensions, and replace them with 401(k)s.
Rauner is such a large funder of privately run, but publicly financed Charter Schools that his name is on one of them.
Rauner is almost the perfect example of the combine – those who donate to both Democrats (he is both a good political friend and funder of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual) and Republicans.
Bruce Rauner was the key person in the massive last-minute funding (Illinois law was about to change and now prevents such huge individual contributions) of Stand for Children, which took credit for SB 7 with all its anti-teacher provisions.
Rauner is an avid supporter of Teach for America – give a person a few weeks of summer training and they become a Teacher for 2 years.
Bruce Rauner thinks he can buy this election by promoting term limits, running against the corruption in Springfield, and being against public unions.
He may be right if all of us do nothing.
What causes unionists and teachers to drink heavily is the prospect of having to choose between Squeezy and Rauner in the November general election.
Then there is Jon Zahm.
Zahm is a Tea Party zealot who was head of the Rick Santorum Illinois campaign.
Jon is convinced that Rauner is a Democrat in disguise. He sends me emails and his blog which claim to contain evidence of same.
Frankly some of his arguments make sense (the result of living in Bizarro World). But to me it just demonstrates what being a Democrat has come to mean.
Lately Zahm ranted against Rauner’s support for charter schools.
This caused me to raise my eyebrows until I read his reasons:
McHenry County conservative leader Evert Evertsen makes an articulate case against the proliferation of charter schools. Of course we have reported here before that Bruce Rauner and his cronies make a lot of money, and accumulate a lot of power thru getting their hands on public education dollars and diverting this cash into schools run by handpicked bureaucrats and, in one extreme case, a school even bears his name on it (Rauner Prep).
Check out the broadcast e-mail Ev put out this morning and the links he cites:
Charter Schools do not have school boards which are elected. Charlotte Iserbyt has been warning us about them for some time.http://www.newswithviews.com/iserbyt/iserbyt107.htm
In Chicago it is La Raza running charter schools and in Louisiana it is Muslims. Who is in control of your local charter schools?
Charter schools are not the answer to fixing our education system – the breakup of the NEA and the AFT would be a start. Elimination of the right to strike for public sector unions and passing / enforcement of Right to Work laws is the answer. In Illinois we must put an end to Prevailing Wage laws. Bruce Rauner may be a controversial GOP candidate for governor but he is working hard to have an advisory vote taken on Term Limits. This is a start but we need to stop the madness of spending tax dollars on illegal aliens and unwarranted social programs – including the indoctrination occurring in public and charter schools. For that to happen you need to vote for candidates who will live up to their oath of office. If no such candidate is running, find someone to run or run yourself.
Zahm says problem with charters, my dear readers, is that they are not effective enough in destroying teacher unions.
Oh. And Zahm and his Tea Party friends are worried about charters that are fronts for Muslims and Mexicans.
In Chicago it is La Raza running charter schools and in Louisiana it is Muslims. Who is in control of your local charter schools?
Racists against Rauner, charters and common core. I’m glad to say I am not finding common cause with this bunch.
Sometimes my enemies’ enemies are my friends.
And sometimes they’re just another enemy.
In Bizarro World.
Fred Klonsky 
Fred,
The lines between Republicans and Democrats is fading away. What is taking place is the emergence of Dollarcrats. These are members of both parties that are heavily supported and funded by big private and corporate money. Members of both parties are so beholding to the big contributors to get elected that it has erased the traditional party lines. This is well documented in the book “Dollarocracy::How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America.” In the last Presidential Election in 2012, TEN BILLION DOLLARS was spent electing a president. The mega spending has now moved down to State wide elections. How much Bloomberg money was spent to elect Tami Duckworth???
A good example which you site in your blog is the relationship between Rauner and Rahm. The big money transcends the party lines. Another good example is Squeezy Quinn who picks Vallas, a former Gop candidate for his running mate. In its simplest terms it boils down to if I got the money I dictate the policy.
The current question for us retirees is will big money prevail or the Illinois Constitution prevail. Will the Illinois Supreme Court Justices uphold the language of the Illinois Constitution or will they succumb to the big money that supported them in getting onto the court. Let’s not forget that every Justice that was a Democrat was slated by Monarch Mike Madigan.
Mike you have it all wrong. Big money doesn’t transcend politics and members of both parties are not beholding to big money—THEY ARE BIG MONEY!!! Let’s get this straight big money is in charge and we have to use what is left of the system, as they did, to turn things towards the needs of the people and not money. Any other approach is disaster for all.
Those of us who work for the public sector are under attack are in deep trouble…I have spent most of my working life at a university and consider myself intelliget and have always been involved in political issues but I must confess I have lost all hope that there can be a political solution; revolution is out of the question the 60’s serves as a good example of what happens when individuals become a threat to the power elite. It is a bleak future we are looking at! The court will most likely side with the crooks and the thieves in Springfiled!
I disagree we need to pick up where we left off (or got distracted) in the sixties.
Bruce “All Mighty” Rauner MUST BE STOPPED!!!!!!!! ALL public sector workers MUST chose ONE GOP candidate in the primary to defeat the wanna be Caesar!!! Then in the general election BIG write in by the public sector workers (and retirees) for Ralph Martire!!! With a large write in vote in a three way race between Martire, some schmuck Republican and Governor Idiot, it COULD WORK!!!!!!!
Let us not forget that Rauner is a cheater. He claimed three home owners exemptions on his Illinois real estate tax despite the fact that he earned 53 million dollars last year. He also cheated to get his daughter into Walter Peyton Prep. These are two FACTS the average voter can relate to and will be repulsed by his candidacy.