In Quincy debate, shadows of controversies haunt Gov. Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker
By Mike Riopell and Rick Pearson
Oct 12, 2018 | 5:45 AM
| Quincy, Ill.
Democratic candidate J.B. Pritzker and Gov. Bruce Rauner engage with each other at their last televised debate at the Quincy Community Theatre in Quincy, Ill., on Oct. 11, 2018. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Controversies surrounding the major candidates for governor cast a long shadow over the final broadcast debate of the campaign Thursday, with Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrat J.B. Pritzker defending accusations of wrongdoing and trying to cast the other as having engaged in criminal conduct.
The setting for the debate was apt in the current political climate. The debate site was 2 miles from the Illinois Veterans Home, the post-Civil War-era facility where 14 people have died and nearly 70 others have been sickened by Legionnaires' disease outbreaks since 2015. Attorney General Lisa Madigan has opened a criminal investigation of the Rauner administration's handling of the outbreaks.
While Rauner has defended his administration on Quincy, he has tried to cast Pritzker as unworthy of the office over property tax breaks the billionaire received on a Gold Coast mansion, where toilets were removed, which the Cook County inspector general said was a "scheme to defraud" taxpayers. Pritzker has said the report was "inaccurate" in not highlighting other problems at the mansion that deemed it to be uninhabitable but has paid $330,000 to the county treasurer's office.
"The voters can in no way trust Mr. Pritzker on any issue. He's demonstrated a complete lack of integrity, ethics and character. He is not worthy of elective office in the state of Illinois," Rauner said, adding later that the Democrat faces "likely indictment in the next few months."
Pritzker labeled Rauner's attacks "a desperate rant by a failed governor who is in the final hours of his campaign and his governorship."
"As a result of his failures and his mismanagement, he's now under a criminal probe, as is his administration. It's a shameful neglect of our veterans who we should be standing up for every single day," Pritzker said.
The controversies and resulting accusations were the dominant theme of the hourlong forum sponsored by WGEM-TV and the Illinois Broadcasters Association. The final face-to-face meeting between the two before the Nov. 6 general election broke little new ground, but reflecting its nature as the lone Downstate debate, both candidates sought to appeal to regional political loyalties.
"For decades, our state has been going down the road of corruption, tax hikes, job losses and a failed political system run out of Chicago's corrupt political machine," said Rauner, who has frequently bashed the city to appeal to Downstate audiences.
Pritzker said he would be a governor for all of Illinois, "whether you're a farmer in Macoupin County or a small business person in Peoria or a nurse or a teacher right here in Quincy."
Rauner has been a regular visitor to the Quincy veterans home and plans to return for another stay later this month. The 1886 facility saw a deadly Legionnaires' outbreak that killed 12 residents and sickened dozens more in 2015. Since then, there have been annual outbreaks at the home. A dozen negligence lawsuits have been filed by families against the state, and the governor's veterans affairs director at the time resigned in June.
This year, a guest from the Quincy home that Rauner featured at his State of the State speech, Ivan Jackson, was later diagnosed with Legionnaires' and subsequently died.
An investigation by WBEZ-FM 91.5 found that the Rauner administration waited six days before notifying the public about the initial outbreak. The governor has said his staff acted properly because the Legionella bacteria is not contagious and he wanted to avoid any potential panic.
The current state budget includes $53 million to cover the first-year costs of rebuilding the veterans home, including its aging water supply system that was repeatedly cited as providing a source for bacterial growth. The funding also includes money to renovate a nearby nursing home to provide temporary housing for residents during the rebuild.
Rauner told the debate audience the deaths and illnesses were "a terrible tragedy" and told families of victims, "I am sorry for your loss."
But the governor contended staff at the veterans home acted "immediately" to ensure residents' safety and that veterans "were well-served" by staff at the home.
Family members of Legionnaires' victims, however, have said they received little or no information about the outbreak. And Rauner's own Department of Labor reprimanded the state Department of Veteran's Affairs that oversees the home for failing to notify employees about the outbreak.
"Actions were not taken immediately," Pritzker said.
"This governor has put his own interests above the safety of people all across the state," the Democrat said.
Rauner contended Pritzker's criticisms over his administration's handling of the veterans home was a "politicization of the suffering of our veterans" and said there was "not a shred of evidence" of criminal behavior over actions involving the outbreaks.
Instead, the governor called it a "sham investigation" to turn public attention away from Pritzker's property tax controversy.
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Pritzker's property tax reassessment was the subject of a Sept. 28 report by Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard that included affidavits and emails regarding an Astor Street mansion that Pritzker purchased next to his Gold Coast residence. Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's special investigations unit is reviewing the report.
During the investigation, Blanchard found that Pritzker's wife, M.K. Pritzker, asked a contractor in 2015 to remove the mansion's five toilets to make the home uninhabitable so it could be reassessed at a lower value. M.K. Pritzker's brother and her personal assistant later made "false representations" in sworn affidavits to the assessor about the mansion's condition and when the toilets were removed, Blanchard found.
"The evidence indicates that the use of these affidavits was part of a scheme for obtaining money by means of false representations," Blanchard wrote in his report.
Rauner, whose campaign originally made lighthearted campaign ads mocking Pritzker over removing toilets from a mansion, has been working to put a harder edge on the issue in light of the inspector general's report — going so far as to warn that the Democrat could go to prison.
"Simple fact, four of my nine predecessors as governor went to jail. Mr. Pritzker has a very good chance of being No. 5," Rauner said as Pritzker interjected, "That's ridiculous."
"You're likely to hear more of that tonight because he's got nothing else, just lies and excuses," Pritzker said of Rauner. "This is Gov. Rauner trying to distract from his own record."
Pritzker once again sought to deflect a question about tax rates under his proposal to replace Illinois' flat-rate income tax with a graduated tax that increases the levy as income grows — but he did provide one specific example.
Asked how a Peoria teacher, making an average salary of $51,481, would fare under Pritzker's plan, the Democrat responded: "That teacher ought to get a tax break. In fact, people in the middle class and those striving to get there should get a tax break."
But Pritzker didn't elaborate on any more specifics, once again saying rates would have to be negotiated with lawmakers and that implementing a graduated tax would go before the voters as a proposed constitutional amendment.
That prompted Rauner to say, "Mr. Pritzker dodges questions like he dodges his taxes."
The candidates also clashed over education, with Pritzker saying a rewrite of how the state doles out money for schools was approved "over the objections of the governor."
"I led that change," Rauner replied.
Rauner has campaigned on signing a new school funding formula that gives more money to less wealthy school districts, particularly those Downstate. But he vetoed an earlier version, contending it was a bailout of Chicago's public schools, only to sign legislation that ultimately gave even more money to CPS.
"We have a new education funding formula that's more equitable, that I led," Rauner said.
"It happened in spite of you," Pritzker shot back.
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"If you're gonna interrupt, be careful about the perjury, Mr. Pritzker," Rauner said.
Libertarian candidate Grayson "Kash" Jackson and Republican state Sen. Sam McCann of Plainview, running as the Conservative Party candidate, were not invited to participate because they failed to meet a 15 percent threshold of support in independent polls, organizers said.
Rick Pearson reported from Chicago.
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