Rauner tours Elk Grove factory, talks jobs

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner stopped in Elk Grove Village on Tuesday morning to tour a local manufacturing company and talk about his plan for Illinois businesses.

Rauner's stop at Acme Industries, is the latest political moment for the Elk Grove company that also hosted Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential election. Acme Industries has 225 employees and provides large machined parts for the oil and gas, transportation, mining, construction, military and aerospace industries.

"We would get the business environment right-sided," said Acme Chairman Warren Young of his hopes for what would happen if Rauner is elected. "Other states around us have a much more business-friendly environment."

Young said he is concerned about workers' compensation, taxation and other issues that affect his business and competition from other states.

"Acme is one of the great companies here in Illinois," Rauner said. "As governor, I want to make sure we put in policies that help companies like Acme grow. We want to create jobs in every community throughout Illinois and to do that we need to have companies like Acme growing."

Rauner has worked to blame the state's lagging unemployment numbers on Gov. Pat Quinn. But Quinn has criticized Rauner for his changing comments about the state's minimum wage and tried to convince voters the Winnetka businessman's wealth means he can't relate to average voters.

The stop was one of several Rauner has made around the suburbs recently and he said he will be back for more before Election Day.

"We are campaigning hard here and in the Western suburbs," Rauner said. "But we're traveling the entire state. We want to run a campaign that's for every family."

Later in the morning, Rauner stopped in Chicago to criticize Illinois' new medical marijuana law, which does not allow the state to reveal information about who has applied for growing and selling licenses until they are awarded.

The spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health said the agency is working to decide how much information can be revealed after the licenses are awarded. Information about the winners will be available but the state might also choose to release some details about the others who applied.

Spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the agency expects up to three times more applications than there are growing and selling licenses available.

• Political editor Mike Riopell contributed to this report.