'Lifelong Democrat' In New Ad Is Paid Rauner Consultant, Neighbor

WINNETKA, IL — Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign began airing a new television ad this week featuring a Winnetka trustee identified as a “lifelong Democrat.” However, records show she voted in Republican primaries in four of the last 10 elections, the State Journal-Register reported. She has also been a paid consultant for the governor's political committee, according to campaign finance records.

Anne Wedner was a national finance committee for Obama for America and remains a commissioner for the U.S. Commission on Public Diplomacy, according to a State Department biography. Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, she founded a political consulting firm, Kent Road Strategies, which has advised both Democratic and Republican candidates on their campaigns and policies, it said.

According to Illinois State Board of Elections, Kent Road Strategies was paid $50,000 for “strategy consulting” by Rauner’s campaign committee. The first payment was reported four months after Wedner said she founded the firm, which is based at her house a few blocks from Rauner’s Winnetka home. Wedner was elected to the Winnetka Village Council in March.

The 30-second ad, entitled, "Saving Our State," opens with a 1970s family photo as Wedner describes canvassing in support the Equal Rights Amendment with her mother.

“Today, I'm not happy about Washington, but I'm also heartbroken about Illinois,” Wedner says in the ad. “We have to fix our financial problems, and Bruce Rauner is the only candidate with the courage to do it. Yes, Rauner is a Republican and I'm a Democrat, but this isn't about party politics. This is about saving our state.”

Wedner told Patch she began working for Rauner's campaign in 2017 during the state's 2-year budget impasse. While the Democratic Party had never offered any compensation for her extensive volunteer work, she said, Rauner's campaign took her seriously, appreciated her perspective and did not want her to feel her services were being taken advantage of.

“I don’t agree with him on everything but he has shown so much courage as it relates to women,” she said, citing Rauner’s signature of HB 40, a bill to expand abortion rights. “I think that he’s shown a ton of courage and I wanted to help him.” Wedner said she has known Bruce and Diana Rauner over the years but never had an especially close relationship and did not volunteer in the same dimension in his first campaign.

“I really respect them, I think that they’re doing this for the right reason, I think they want to fix things," she said. "And unfortunately, we have a really tough situation in our state.”

Will Allison, the communications director for Rauner’s campaign, told the State Journal-Register Wedner’s decision to vote in GOP primaries in 2000, 2012, 2014 and 2018 supported the point the ad was making – that candidates are more important than party. Allison told Patch Wedner has been a registered Democrat her entire life.

"She's only voted in four GOP primaries over the course of several decades, two of which were for Rauner - the candidate she's supporting," he said. Allison had no comment in response to a question regarding whether it would have been valuable to viewers to disclose the financial ties between her and the governor's campaign committee, which paid for the ad.

Wedner said she had supported Democratic candidates financially and with her time for years. She said she had been a bit surprised by the reaction to her primary voting history.

“I think that this idea that the primary ballot is a reflection of your party loyalty is a little goofy to me. I never thought about it that way and never thought I would be judged that way," Wedner said, pointing to recognition she has received from the Illinois 10th District Democrats and the New Trier Democrats. "For me, I got, literally, the volunteer of the year award from two Democratic organizations in the North Shore in two successive years. So, for me, I feel very much like I’m a Democrat because I work so hard.”

Wedner said Illinois Democratic leadership has blocked progressive policies from being enacted.

“I just don’t believe that Mike Madigan’s definition of the Democratic Party in this state is what the Democratic Party is,” she said, pointing to the lack of similar reforms as seen in other Democrat-controlled states. “But we don’t do those here – not because we’re not controlled by so-called Democrats, but because our so-called Democrats don’t really embrace the progressive values that other Democrats do in our nation.”

Watch the ad: