Rauner Will Run For Reelection, Even Though He Is Reviled

By Mae Rice in News on Jun 21, 2016 7:51PM

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner last February in Chicago. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to run for re-election in 2018, he told the Tribune on Monday—a bold move given that he has kept Illinois from passing a budget for almost a full year, and everyone in Illinois hates him. Like, really, the type of deep-seated loathing usually reserved for Scar in The Lion King. (And maybe even that is generous of his constituents, since Scar at least sang a song!)

To review: Illinois’ long-running budget nonexistence crisis has caused problems for schools, social services, the lottery and (most relevant right now) Rauner’s popularity. Here is how much people hate him:

* He was the sixth most unpopular governor in the U.S. in mid-May, and that can’t have improved with time.
* "It’s no wonder no one can trust him,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said of Rauner in a recent statement on Chicago’s pension crisis. (This was like, an official statement! Other people read it before it came out!)
* A columnist at the Tribune, which once endorsed Rauner, gave his first term an “epic F” in a spring column that included the word "fail" a total of 20 times.
* Fully half of Illinois disliked Rauner this spring, and a truly convincing majority of Chicagoans—58 percent—thought he sucked (paraphrasing).

So, wow. Good luck with your reelection bid, bud? Someone is definitely going to moon you before it's over.