Editorial: Rauner and the delicate, critical task of shaking up Springfield
Novice politician Bruce Rauner has shown us he can win elections and how he does it - with bold promises, unrelenting aggression and unwavering focus. Now, we look forward to seeing whether he can govern.
How he goes about that task will be a key factor in his success, and it likely will require a very different approach than that which got him into the governor's seat. Rauner himself indicated as much at various times throughout the campaign when, after proclaiming the team building he would do as governor, he was asked whether he wasn't impeding his goal by constantly assaulting the members of the legislative team he will inherit as corrupt and incompetent.
"That's politics," he told us and others. After the election, he said, he would be able to show and earn the respect of the Democrat-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate that would enable him to move his agenda of lower taxes, controlled spending and waste reduction.
The pragmatic cynicism inherent in that strategy notwithstanding, we hope he's right. And we think he has a better chance of being right if his model is the cooperative toughness of, say, former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar rather than the belligerent confrontation of, say, Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker.
Walker, the Republican who took Madison through months of tense acrimony to the brink of crisis before managing to assert his agenda, won his re-election bid on Tuesday, of course, and he has produced at least tentative early results in improving Wisconsin's employment and economic outlook. But Illinois is not Wisconsin, in neither its government traditions nor its political geography. For the diverse and contentious political dynamics of Illinois, the Edgar standard remains the best indicator of success in governing the widely varied needs and passions of Illinois' three-pronged composite of urban, rural and suburban interests.
Rauner, who is quick to express his admiration for Indiana's former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, seemed to recognize the importance of the Edgar reputation, prominently presenting ads showing him alongside the former governor in the crucial final days before the election. But it's natural to hope that those ads weren't "just politics," too.
If Rauner is to have any success, controversy and tension certainly loom for the state's political future. One doesn't manage the kind of tectonic political and economic transformation that Rauner promises without disrupting an entrenched power base that is well-prepared to put up a fight. But his most long-lasting success will come by demonstrating the understanding and compassion that played such a prominent role in his victory speech Tuesday night. Improving the state's business climate is surely a top priority of the next few years, but it will have no durability if it comes at the expense of the vulnerable citizens who rely on state programs and services.
And let us add that this responsibility is not Rauner's alone. Lawmakers, even Democrats - especially Democrats - also have a duty to lead. The voters recognized that the state cannot escape its current quagmire with the status quo. The election, like our endorsement of Rauner, was less an embrace of the Republican or a repudiation of Gov. Pat Quinn than it was an acknowledgment that all state government has been headed down the wrong path.
Rauner alone can't "shake up Springfield." We hope all three leaders - Rauner, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton - appreciate what the voters were saying Tuesday: No more business as usual. No more special interest politics. No more blind spending. Get Illinois' economy moving again. Make this a state, as in days of old, where people flock rather than flee.