Guest View: Suburban Republicans push Rauner to compromise

For most of his first year, Gov. Bruce Rauner has held sway over the Republican caucuses, ironically, doing a pretty good impersonation of House Speaker Mike Madigan. He and his chieftains have sent the message the GOP must be with him or they will be against him and his unlimited wealth. Rauner raised eyebrows late in the spring when he handed out campaign checks to most legislative Republicans to reinforce that message. Madigan, who also serves as the head of the state's Democratic Party, keeps his House caucus in check largely by doing the same, doling out the critical money and manpower that helps keep his members elected.

Rauner's party takeover has left several Republicans grumbling that the governor doesn't listen to anyone or pay much attention to detail. They say he doesn't appreciate the fallout they suffer from some of his budget stalemate moves.

That changed in a few ways last week. Democratic state Rep. Ken Dunkin might take the credit, but House Republicans were telling Rauner he had choked off too much state aid for child care by shrinking the eligibility requirement too dramatically. Some were going to have trouble staying with the governor if the Democrats called a bill to try to take power away from governors to rewrite such eligibility rules.

Rauner got the message. He'd lost that battle already, or was about to, so he compromised and declared victory by agreeing to ease up on the requirements. When Democrats attempted to take away the power anyway, Republicans saw the danger in that and stayed with Rauner, who got Dunkin to go along, blocking the move.

Dunkin played a critical role, but Rauner finally heeded his own party's warnings.

State Rep. David Harris, a conservative Arlington Heights Republican, said, “There were a number of us who were concerned about child care. There also was the sensitivity of the issue.” Harris called tightening the restrictions to qualify for help paying for child care by 73 percent “draconian.”

Rauner also agreed to scrap his plan to raise the eligibility threshold for the elderly and disabled to get state aid for in-home care.

State Rep. David McSweeney, a wealthy conservative from Barrington who isn't as reliant on Rauner's campaign aid, agreed: “I applaud him for doing it, but let's move on” to the budget and pensions.

Harris said, “If I get 12 or 20 emails or letters, I take notice. I'm sure I didn't get as many as some others did. … I had a group of folks come in and visit with me personally. We have elderly out here. We have single moms out here who rely on child care assistance. It's wrong to stereotype many of these issues as city and suburbs or city and downstate with these programs.”

McSweeney added: “I'm a fiscal conservative, but I'm concerned about the destruction of our social service infrastructure. And I come from a fairly affluent district. That's the thing you would fund first.”

Pushed to the brink, people rose up and spoke forcefully, both those victimized by the budget impasse and those who are elected to represent them. The governor listened and responded. Whether you think the money involved should have been spent or not, that's the way our government is supposed to work.

• Madeleine Doubek is chief operating officer of Reboot Illinois.

For a longer version of this column, click here.