We’ve written often here about Susana Mendoza’s constant misuse of the Illinois Comptroller’s office to peddle a key piece of her party’s political message – that Illinois’ fiscal problems result almost entirely from Bruce Rauner and a budget impasse he caused.
Her latest takes the cake – using that message against Bill Daley in their contest for Chicago mayor.
Yes, Bill Daley is responsible for Rauner’s performance, which caused our problems, she says in a new ad. “After co-chairing Bruce Rauner’s transition team and writing the blueprint for the governor’s four years of crisis and destruction, Daley “stood by and remained silent” while Rauner did all that bad stuff, she says.
What nonsense. Rauner’s transition report was, like JB Pritzker’s recent one, a collection of pieties and vague aspirations. Rauner’s, in fact, was decidedly left-leaning, which stunned fiscal realists like me at the time. In no way did it provide a blueprint for the budget impasse or anything else. Daley may have co-chaired the transition team, but I’d wager he forgot what was in the report within weeks, if he ever read it at all.
More importantly, the underlying premise that Rauner and the budget impasse account for most of Illinois’s problems is just silly. See my colleagues’ recent 20-chart article obliterating that premise. My new Crain’s article addresses the same point.
The Better Government Association has a fact-check out on the Mendoza ad, too, ruling the ad false. We haven’t liked many of the BGA’s recent fact-checks, but this one is right.
By the way, there’s a wonderful final line in the new report released by the Pritzker Administration titled the “Rauner Wreckage” where it, too, blames Rauner for everything:
A special thank you to the Office of the Illinois Comptroller for groundbreaking and significant research on the true costs of the budget impasse and the state’s backlog of bills; this report is built on and extends that research with additional findings.
In other words, thanks, Susana, for using your office to help concoct our core political message.
-Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.