– Greg Hinz
If you put together a list of Illinois politicians whom Bruce Rauner would be least likely to funnel campaign cash to, Chicago’s Stroger clan and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan would be right at the top.
The late John Stroger and son Todd Stroger pretty much left Cook County government a financial wasteland after their respective terms as president of the county board. Mr. Madigan has presided for decades over a state government that has had its own staggering stumbles. And while the Strogers and Mr. Madigan were in position to influence zillions in contract goodies, “reformer” Mr. Rauner, the GOP nominee for governor, would never stoop to pay-to-play tactics, would he?
Keep reading.
Incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn and his sins have been in the media 24/7 lately, and for good reason. A patronage hiring scandal at the Illinois Department of Transportation and apparent abuse in the governor’s anti-violence program have drawn the attention of the news media, a federal grand jury and more, as they should. Mr. Quinn has a lot of explaining to do if he’s not going to be sent packing in November.
But, once again, so does Mr. Rauner. Ergo the story about how a company he partly owned and on whose board he served just happened to make 11 contributions to Mr. Stroger’s campaign fund and to the Strogers’ 8th Ward Regular Democratic Organization at the time when Cook County was awarding the company a series of contracts over four years. Not to mention a $5,000 contribution to the Democratic Party of Illinois, Mr. Madigan, chairman. Or the fact that the company involved was hit with an $81,000 lien for failure to pay state income taxes.
Fred Klonsky 
There is also Rauner’s role in financing abusive nursing homes. Plus, remember that his Revenue company role was suing poor people who could not pay their medical bills. Besides which, so much of his money (nursing homes, pensions, etc) are public moneys, so how does he dare talk about cutting government services?
The contributions aren’t the “pay to play”, it’s just the down payment. Gets you into the room with everybody else to see who will pay the most to play.
I have asked that question here and a lot of other places Why does the crowd whole really males the gold off the goose want to kill it? I seriously want to know It boggles my mind. Even if I cant make a certain item for a customer no matter how small it bothers me to disappoint them I just cant imagine going around trashing the people who pay me to make things..or in this case provide a service……I really don’t get it
I will give you an example of how having state employees as customers should be treated . Health alliance developed a good following among many SERS and SURS employees and when it was dumped for some Quinn related reason many state employees screamed and screamed because this contractor did a good job …I would regularly meet with SURS members if I managed their money . I wouldn’t want to now because I just cant lie about a return better than 3 theses days
Nosferatu? Good call. Quinn must be Renfield.