Things got heated on Tuesday when Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and challenger Bruce Rauner met for a face-to-face debate in front of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.
The session lasted 80 minutes but arguably the most interesting point came when Quinn dropped an intriguing allegation: that Bruce Rauner had offered to pay off lawmakers to vote against the pension reform bill passed by Illinois last December. From the Chicago Tribune:
Quinn said that in December, during the heat of negotiations over a measure to drastically change public employee pension benefits, House Republican leader Jim Durkin told him that Rauner was offering campaign cash to GOP lawmakers to vote against the bill.
Rauner acknowledged working against the pension bill, which Quinn signed into law, but denied the governor’s allegation. Durkin aides referred calls to the state Republican Party, which did not directly address Quinn’s allegation in an emailed statement.
Bruce Rauner has proposed a plan to freeze the pensions of all current state employees and switch them into a 401(k)-style plan.
But Rauner has softened his stance in recent days, perhaps because he doesn’t want to alienate voters in what’s shaping out to be a close race.
During a public appearance Wednesday, Rauner said the following, according to WUIS:
“I’m a believer that we need to protect the pensions for the police officers, and give them a special retirement beyond what’s standardly done in other pensions.”
He didn’t clarify exactly what he meant by the statement.
Photo by Chris Eaves via Flickr CC License