Gov. Rauner Says He Tried To Drop Out Of Race, Handpick Successor

CHICAGO — Gov. Bruce Rauner admitted this week he tried to drop out of his unsuccessful bid for re-election on multiple occasions. In an interview with WLS-TV, the outgoing Republican governor revealed that he asked four people to take his spot on the ballot after he realized his chances were slim and thought he had a shot at handpicking his replacement.

"I said 'I'll step aside, I'll give you huge financial resources, you run for governor. I'll support you. You have as good or better chance to get elected than me.' All four of them said 'No. Too tough, too unlikely, too difficult,'" Rauner said.

Rauner declined to name the potential candidates he tried to recruit in the interview televised Thursday. He described them as two men and two women, and said they included two people who had success in elected office and two people with success in business and law.

Sources had identified three of the four people offered the job. The entreaties began before Rauner fended off a primary challenge from Rep. Jeanne Ives by about 3 percentage points in March and continued through the summer.

Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts, of Wilmette, turned down the job, WLS reported. The longtime GOP fundraiser and finance chair of the Republican National Committee has declined to comment on the reports through a spokesperson.

Former Sen. Karen McConnaughay, of St. Charles, who resigned from the Senate in September, confirmed Rauner asked her to take his spot on the ballot in April. She told the Daily Herald she had not disclosed the offer to Republican Party leadership or anyone but close friends at the time.

"The whole concept that a sitting governor was out looking for a candidate to replace him was a serious, volatile thing," McConnaughay said. From the conversation, it appeared that Rauner did not understand the process.

"I was concerned in my conversations that he didn't really understand that if he really did want to take his name off the ballot, that he couldn't just pick a replacement," she told the Daily Herald.

In fact, state law does not permit a candidate to drop out of a race and unilaterally decide their own replacement on the ballot. In the case of a governor, the state central committee would have to approve any new nominee.

Rauner's efforts to extricate himself from the job he spent more than $80 million to win and keep matched his governing style, McConnaughay told the Chicago Tribune. She said Rauner believed he would be able to impose his agenda and did not bother to understand the process.

“He tried to take himself out the same way he came in," she told the Tribune. "He never learned the job.”

Urbana lawyer Erika Harold, who was defeated in the race for attorney general, was offered the job after winning the GOP primary and before losing to Chicago Democratic state Sen. Kwame Raoul. The Tribune reported Rauner made the offer in August.

According to Rauner's description the fourth person is a man who has held elected office. He had not been publicly identified as of Friday afternoon.

The Winnetka private equity investor said being governor had been the most difficult job he had ever undertaken, telling WLS he would not miss the stress of the position.

Rauner partially blamed the election of Donald Trump for his loss in November. He told the ABC affiliate he believed he would have had "dramatically higher" odds of being re-elected if Hilary Clinton had been elected president in 2016.

"When President Trump won the White House but lost Illinois by more than 16 points," he said. "That changed the dynamic from good chance for reelection to very, very difficult chance for reelection."

He went on to be defeated by Gov.-elect JB Pritzker by a margin of about 16 points, becoming the first incumbent in over a century to lose the governorship by double digits after a single four-year term.