Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner Jab and Jabber at Tribune Editorial Board Session

Gov. Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner sat side by side and swiped at each other before the Chicago Tribune editorial board on Tuesday, trading insults and ideas in their first face-to-face exchange.

The Democratic governor and Republican challenger discussed growing the economy, the minimum wage, education, corruption and reform — and Rod Blagojevich’s hair.

Quinn and Rauner also jabbed at each other and interrupted each other repeatedly in the Tribune’s endorsement session.

“His so-called plan is clear as mud,” Quinn said of Rauner’s economic recovery plan.

“You don’t understand arithmetic,” Quinn said of Rauner’s education plans. “You don’t want kids to learn arithmetic because you want to slash their budget in their schools.”

“You’ve kept Blagojevich people,” Rauner told Quinn, pointing to corruption in IDOT. “The only difference between Pat and Rod is the hair.”

“Phony reform” is what the Quinn administration is all about, Rauner said.

“If Pat Quinn was serious about raising the minimum wage, he could have done it,” Rauner said.

You can’t even mow your lawn, Rauner said. And you’re a wine snob, Quinn shot back. Well ... not really. But they might as well have for the obvious distaste each had for the other.

Quinn essentially called Rauner a money-grubbing rich man who doesn’t care about people: “You’ve made a fortune off the misfortune of vulnerable human beings.”

And Rauner said Quinn was a failure and part of the same corrupt political establishment that spawned Blagojevich and Mike Madigan: “He’s a failed governor.”

QUINN AND RAUNER ON THE ECONOMY

You’ll find more videos at ChicagoTribune.com.

The candidates will meet a few more times before the November election at agreed-upon debates — on Oct. 9 in Peoria, Oct. 14 and Oct. 16 in Chicago.