Bruce Rauner is majorly for jobs and growth and it is quite obvious that he is the best

candidate to pull the Illinois economy out of its low-growth rut, as an article from 2016 says that,

Illinois did not lose jobs in 2015, as IDES previously reported, but in fact gained almost

50,000 (Hinz). Rauner has done a great job in office and has helped Illinois gain nearly

138,000 jobs in just about two years, which is above the normal rate by 2.3 percent and about

half of the national rate (Hinz). Rauner is a self-made millionaire and he worked hard for his

wealth by helping build a startup investment firm, which eventually became one of the most

successful businesses in the state (Media). And in his 2016 State of State speech to the Illinois

legislature, Bruce said the following, To bring good jobs to Illinois, we have to make Illinois a

place where it is good to do business. We must fix our workers comp system, labor regulations,

liability costs, and property taxes that make us uncompetitive. The cost of worker's comp is the

biggest factor driving our job losses. If we simply aligned our workers comp costs with those of

a state like Massachusetts--which is hardly a bastion of conservatism--we can save state and

local taxpayers over $300 million per year. Most supporters of Rauner support him because of

his confidence in the state of Illinois and the hope that he gives to the state.

In his 2017 State of the State address to the Illinois Legislature, Rauner made his views

on education clear when he said, Two years ago we delivered unprecedented funding for our K-

12 schools, and the next year we came back and did it again. In all, our kids are receiving $700

million more per year from the state than two years ago, including an extra $100 million for early

childhood education. The practice of proration has come to an end. We formed a bipartisan task

force to recommend changes to the unbalanced way our K-12 public schools are funded. For

years Illinois has provided the lowest percentage of education financial support from any state in

the country. And we have the largest gap between funding for high income schools and low
income schools in the country, both across the state and within the city of Chicago. The task

force expects to finish their work in the coming weeks, and we look forward to working on a

bipartisan basis to implement their recommendations. Sadly, just during the time between

2003-2013, costs for college have risen an astonishing 79 percents and the CPI inflation rate only

rose 27 percent (Ontheissues.org).

Bruce has made a few comments on the environment in the past, he even brought the

topic up during his 2017 State of the State address to the Illinois legislature where he talked

about testing drinking water for lead and said, Another critical initiative of the Children's

Cabinet is reducing young children's exposure to lead. Democrats and Republicans stood

together in signing a bill that requires all schools and daycare centers to test their drinking water

regularly for lead, and inform parents of the results. Reducing lead exposure--which

disproportionately affects low-income children and children of color--is a social justice issue.

Environmental issues were a hot topic during the 2016 election, where energy issues were greatly

talked about so much that other environmental topics were not even brought up (ontheissues.org)

For the topic of ethics and reform, Rauner has made some moves based off of his stance

on the topic. For example, in February of 2016, he passed an executive order which, he claimed,

would strengthen state ethics rules and make state workers more accountable to taxpayers

(FOX2now.com) Also, in 2014, Rauner introduced an ethics reform plan, where it basically said

Everyone who received a job illegally at IDOT should be fired, Illinois needs a one-year

revolving door ban, Illinois should ban the use of outside contract lobbyists, Bruce will back

legislation restricting legislative leaders outside employment, We need meaningful reforms to

our ethics statutes that make compliance with ethics laws mandatory and not optional, The

Illinois General Assembly should pass a constitutional amendment extending recall provisions,
Illinois taxpayers should not foot the retirement bill for criminals, Illinois also should amend

the pension code to suspend the payment of any taxpayer-funded pension, and The Illinois

Constitution should be amended to allow for multiple expulsions of legislators. If you violate the

public trust, you should not serve. (Illinois Review)

As for health care, some of the controversial topics include Obamacare, HMOs and

managed care, patients Bill of Rights, Medicaid, Medicare, Euthanasia, and tobacco settlement

(OnTheIssues). Just recently Rauner has expressed concerns about a drop-off of federal

funding under the Medicaid expansion that is providing health care coverage to about 650,000

Illinois residents. He has also said that he is opposed to some parts of the House GOP legislation

but has not offered any specifics. Last week, Rauner said he was working with other governors

to craft a joint response or some recommendations to what's been proposed" (Chicago Tribune

staff).

According to the Equality Illinois press release, Rauner met with the leaders of the

organization and committed his administration to strict enforcement of non-discrimination laws

and suggested an openness to new initiatives to protect Illinoisans who experience unequal

treatment. Rauner even said that his office would issue a directive to all of the state officials

and would enforce non-discrimination and anti-bullying laws strictly to help protect those who

are LGBT and others (Equality Illinois). This is a first for Illinois and he will even appoint a

liaison to the states LGBT community providing an open and ongoing line of communication

(Equality Illinois).

Sadly, Rauner has not been the best when it comes to senior care and aging, as it is

difficult to please everyone.However, he has tried his hardest to take of the elderly when it comes

to funds and care. The elderly even ran a protest in 2015 because, due to the 400 million dollars
in cuts, the Illinois Department on Aging would make it harder to qualify by raising the

requirements for the programs that provide them with at-home care rather than nursing home

care (Holman). According to the AARP, it was said that the cut would affect more than 39,000

seniors (Holman). Another unpopular choice of Bruce Rauners when it came to senior citizens

was in July of 2016, when he vetoed a bill that proponents said would enable thousands of

senior citizens to continue receiving state assistance to remain in their homes (Finke).

Rauner has often expressed his gratitude for veterans and encouraged citizens and those

surrounding him to give back to their heroes. In fact, at the Illinois State Military Museum, he

declared November the month to honor our veterans and even said, "Let's all help our veterans.

They are our heroes. They deserve every bit of support that we can give them. Thank you for this

effort. Thank you for joining in the program to make sure November is a time that we all give

back and support our veterans" (Fox Illinois News Team). Bruce has decided to call November

Serving those who served month in Illinois. His appreciation for veterans was displayed

through the passing of several bills that benefit veterans directly including a measure that

established a discount card for veterans as well a breaks in property taxes for disabled military

veterans that need to make their homes more accessible with wheelchair ramps for example

(Chicago Tribune).

It is well-known that Chicago has a problem with gun violence, so to keep Illinois safer,

Rauner has had to sign more bills and laws on gun control. To reduce violence in Illinois, but

mainly in Chicago there was law passed in August of 2016 that targets anyone without a

Firearm Owner's Identification (FOID) card who buy guns in states other than Illinois with the

intent of bringing them into Illinois particularly into Chicago to sell to other individuals on

the streets. Doing so is now a felony that carries a prison sentence of four to 20 years. The
sentence for repeat offenders is 30 years (Hawkins). Durkin voiced his support for the law by

pointing to the 425 people [who] have been murdered with guns in Chicago so far this year. He

said, Another 2,320 have been wounded. The guns in about 60% of those crimes were

purchased out of state (Hawkins).

When it comes to taxes, Rauner has clearly said that he wishes to reduce property tax for

homeowners and businesses and reduce anti-competitive corporate tax and income tax. Rauner

touched on the topic of reducing property tax for homeowners and businesses at the 2016 State

of the State speech to the Illinois legislature when he said, One of the most critical ways to

lower our cost of living and compete for more good jobs is to reduce our property tax burden. We

have the second-highest property taxes in the country. They are crushing homeowners and small

business owners from one end of the state to the other. In many cases, people are paying more in

property taxes over the course of living in their home than the original purchase price

(OnTheIssues). As for reducing anti-competitive corporate and income tax, he touched on it on

his campaign site in 2014 saying that we need to completely overhaul the tax code; not just

tinker around the edges. To do that, we can:Get rid of the Quinn-Madigan 67% income tax hike,

Get rid of the Quinn-Madigan 45% corporate tax hike, Ensure your property taxes never go

up if the value of your home decreases, and Overhaul the tax code so that it's fair to all

taxpayers.

Chosen to run alongside Bruce is Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti. As a member

of the Republican party as well as the 47th Lieutenant Governor who worked with Bruce Rauner

as Governor as a result of the previous election, we felt she would be the best candidate to run

for the position. As Lieutenant Governor, Evelyn supports all of the moves Bruce wishes to

make, and understands what is best for the people of Illinois. She is all about fighting for the
people of Illinois to give them what is best, therefore she is the perfect candidate for Lieutenant

Governor to run alongside Bruce Rauner.

Works Cited

2016Chicago, IL0 AWR Hawkins24 Aug. "Illinois Governor Signs More Gun Control

Aimed at Chicago Gun Violence." Breitbart. 24 Aug. 2016. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Finke, Doug. "Gov. Rauner Vetoes Senior Assistance Bill." The State Journal. The State

Journal-Register, 31 July 2016. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Greg Hinz on Politics. "State's Job Growth Much Better than Rauner Said." Crain's

Chicago Business. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

"Home Aide Workers, Elderly Protest Rauner's Proposed Budget Cuts." Chicago Sun-

Times. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Media, Shaw. "Shaw Media Endorsement: Rauner Offers Hope for Illinois."

SaukValley.com. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

OnTheIssues.org. "Bruce Rauner on the Issues." Bruce Rauner on the Issues. Web. 14

Mar. 2017.

"Rauner Makes Commitment to LGBT Illinoisans Equality Illinois." Equality Illinois.

Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

"Rauner Introduces Ethics Reform Plan." Illinois Review. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.

"Rauner Says Executive Order Will Strengthen Ethics Rules." FOX2now.com. 26 Feb.
 2016. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Team, Fox Illinois News. "Gov. Rauner Encouraging Residents To Give Back To

Veterans." WRSP. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Staff, Chicago Tribune. "Morning Spin: Durbin, Duckworth Push Rauner on Republican

Health Care Plan." Chicagotribune.com. 14 Mar. 2017. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.