Pritzker says he’ll lead Illinois as resistance state to Trump

July 31--Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker Monday pledged if elected to lead Illinois as a resistance state to President Donald Trump's policies and said Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's silence on federal issues demonstrated he was "complicit" with the president.

"I'm proud to be part of the resistance," Pritzker told a group of supporters, using downtown's Trump Tower as a backdrop. "When I'm governor, we're not going to be silent like Bruce Rauner. Illinois will be a firewall against Donald Trump's destructive and bigoted agenda."

On Monday, Pritzker unveiled plans such as expanded availability of health care and protections for gay rights and immigrants. His comments were symbolic of the effort by Democratic contenders to try to tap into progressive anger toward Trump, as well as to try to tie the president to the state's first-term GOP governor.

Rauner rarely has discussed Trump in public, let alone provide responses to reporter questions involving the White House on such issues as the Republican push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which could affect hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans who receive health care under a federally funded expansion of Medicaid.

It is a delicate political effort ahead of a re-election bid as Rauner tries to maintain Trump's base in rural parts of the state while working to avoid creating problems in the more moderate but vote-heavy GOP-leaning collar counties that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy last year.

Pritzker, a billionaire entrepreneur and investor, maintained Rauner was "playing in tandem" with Trump.

"If you're governor of a state and you have nothing to say when the president attacks the people that you represent, you are complicit," Pritzker said of the governor.

"It takes a tough, stand-up governor to stand up to the president of the United States --speaking out against the president, speaking out against his policies and, more than that, having actual policies that will help expand health care while ... Trump is trying to diminish it for Illinois families," he said. "That's standing up for Illinois. Where is our governor? Silent."

Rauner's camp has said the governor was "concerned" about the Republican effort in Washington to change health care but was waiting to see a congressional final work product, which remains uncertain. His campaign didn't immediately respond to Pritzker's remarks Monday.

Pritzker is one of eight announced candidates for the Democratic nomination. He proposed expanding the availability of health care for middle-income families by offering a "public option" insurance plan that would exist alongside private health insurance but offer lower premiums.

He said his plan would allow families to purchase coverage through "our existing public medical assistance programs" and that it would not cost state taxpayers additional money. But he did not detail the proposal or whether it was reliant on federal funding and approval, which could be questionable when Congress and the presidency are under GOP control.

Discussion of public-option plans has created some concerns from insurers who don't want greater government involvement in health care and among providers who are concerned such a system would result in lower payments, reducing the availability of doctors. Some Democrats, though, contend a public-option program does not go far enough and prefer a single-payer program under which the government provides health care coverage for everyone.

In addition to health care and immigration, Pritzker vowed programs that would lead to universal preschool and adhering to international carbon standards rejected by the Trump administration.

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