Gov. Rauner ekes out victory over Jeanne Ives
With just over 90 percent of the vote counted, Rauner had just under 52 percent of the vote to Ives' 48 percent. Only about 20,500 votes separated the candidates, out of more than 630,000 cast.
It was a much closer result than anyone anticipated last fall, when Ives, of
At
"For those of you around the state of
But Rauner urged
"The future of
"We know what (Democratic nominee J.B.)
Ives conceded the race around
"Despite this defeat, I know the overwhelming majority of Illinoisans want change in
"If I'm going to go down, I'm going to do down with her rather than someone who's lied and betrayed half of what I wanted as a Republican to get the other half," he said.
"We just want this state to turn around," he said. "I don't think
But
"He's the best of the two choices," she said. "Weighing them both, she's just a little more conservative than I am."
Last summer, it appeared no one would challenge the incumbent as he sought a second term. But in short order, Rauner signed a bill decried by conservatives as turning
The final straw, though, was when Rauner signed a bill providing expanded abortion coverage for Medicaid recipients and also extending abortion coverage to women covered by state employee health insurance. Rauner is the first governor in the country to provide that level of access.
Rauner filled out a questionnaire from an abortion rights group in 2014 indicating he would support a bill like that. However, in 2017, when the bill passed, Rauner told
It was shortly after that that Ives, a social and fiscal conservative, announced she was going to challenge Rauner in the primary.
Rauner alluded to those controversies in his Election Night speech.
For a while, Rauner virtually ignored Ives, focusing instead on running ads trying to damage
Rauner aired ads saying that Ives was the favorite Republican of House Speaker
At a forum with Rauner at the
Rauner was roundly criticized for the ad because Ives staunchly opposes Madigan and his agenda. At the same time, Ives acknowledged at a news conference Monday that the ads were effective, particularly among downstate voters.
"It's so pathetic that this governor is counting on uninformed voters for his victory," Ives said.
Ives came under fire for her own advertising. The first ad she aired featured various people sarcastically thanking Rauner for supporting their causes. It included a man dressed in women's clothing thanking Rauner for allowing him to use women's bathrooms. Even many
Ives followed with an ad implying that her first outing was deliberately controversial to draw attention to her campaign.
The campaign took an even odder turn in the last couple of weeks when the
Rauner has been dogged with criticism over his handling of repeated outbreaks of Legionnaire's disease at the Quincy veterans home. Rauner said the outbreaks, which led to several deaths, were handled according to protocol. Relatives of the victims, though, said they were often left in the dark about the condition of their loved ones and that the state was slow to recognize and deal with the problem.
Staff writers
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