Rutherford, Rauner Engage In Political Gamesmanship

By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 4, 2014 3:00PM

Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s campaign for governor has run into some choppy waters of late and Rutherford is blaming one of his rivals for his recent misfortune.

Rutherford’s troubles began last Friday when he held a news conference to refute harassment allegations by an employee in his office and that the staffer’s attorney demanded $300,000 in hush money the week prior. Rutherford announced an independent investigation into the allegations and promised a fast resolution.

But the news conference took an odd turn when Rutherford accused businessman and his political rival Bruce Rauner of orchestrating the allegations. Christine Svenson, the attorney representing the staffer accusing Rutherford for harassment, once did work for Rauner’s political campaign and was paid $3,500. Rutherford, in his news conference, saved his harshest words for Rauner.

“I’m going to turn this back on him,” Rutherford said of Rauner. “I find this to be very, very offensive . . . Illinois politics is hardball.”

Svenson dismissed Rutherford’s allegations of Rauner being behind the harassment claim and said they were “serious and real." The staffer resigned from the Treasurer’s office Monday and spoke to the Sun-Times and said he was “intimidated” by Rutherford’s news conference, particularly how the Treasurer was flanked by federal agents. The staffer said he was pressured to do political work for Rutherford.

Rauner campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf said Rutherford “should spend his time answering the serious claims made against him by a state employee, rather than trying to distract attention with a ridiculous false claim against us.”

That was followed Monday by reports regarding Rutherford’s overseas travels as Treasurer. According to records, Rutherford made visits to China, Korea and Israel during his time in office for a total of 32 days spent abroad. Except for his airfare to China (which he paid out of pocket) all of Rutherford’s trips were underwritten by third parties. Contrasts to Rutherford's travels in office were made to predecessors Judy Baar Topinka, Alexi Giannoulias and Pat Quinn, who didn't travel abroad while serving as Treasurer.

Rutherford defended his travels as being for “educational purposes” and stressed that Illinois taxpayers were not footing the bill, but the damage is already done. Capitol Fax jefe Rich Miller called it the story the Rauner campaign wants the media to hammer home to the public.

NBC Chicago’s Mark W. Anderson said Rutherford’s stumbles could torpedo his chances of the statehouse, especially if the Treasurer’s allegations that Rauner orchestrated the harassment claim are nothing more than a deflection.

By claiming political extortion without the necessary details to back it up, almost everything has to go right for Rutherford in the next few days and weeks if he hopes to have any chance at the GOP nomination for governor. Or even a reasonable political career down the road.

In fact, not only would the accusations have to be disproven on their face, there would have to also be no one else who would come forward in the future. Plus, an unassailable smoking gun tying the attorney, accuser and Rauner together would have to be found, all within a pretty short period of time.

More importantly, Rutherford has to hope that no reporter or rival political operative between now and Primary Day manages to get the accuser to break his silence. That’s a tall order in a story as white-hot as this one. After all, a press conference detailing EEOC charges, whether true or not, could be devastating to a campaign.

This racheting of tensions between Rutherford and Rauner is a game of political chicken being played out in the media. With little more than a month remaining before the March 14 gubernatorial primary both Rauner and Rutherford are working hard to smear each other as they seek the votes of Illinoisans. The stories about Rutherford help Rauner’s narrative that he’s running for governor to shake up the status quo and end business as usual in Illinois. Meanwhile, Rutherford’s digs at Rauner feed into the ongoing contradictions behind the “populist” campaign Rauner is trying to mount and the reality that this is a venture capitalist with ties to the most powerful politicians in Illinois—in both major parties—who is capable of lending money to his own campaign in $1 million bursts.

The sniping between the Rauner and Rutherford campaigns can also be taken to mean that each sees the other as his main obstacle between the primary and a general election campaign against Gov. Pat Quinn in November. But if this mudslinging continues the one who will likely benefit the most would be Quinn.