Illinois Republican gubernatorial nominee and multi-billionaire Bruce Rauner has been Captain Invisible on gun rights.
He plays the role of a conservative, of sorts, in his campaign thus far. To tout his 2nd Amendment credentials, he loves to brag on his hunting dog, as though gun owners are low-information voters who will clap on cue because some guy says he’s got a good “huntin'” dog.
With gun rights friends like these two, who needs any enemies?
He often closes his presentations with, “And I’ve got the best huntin’ dog in the state!” – right before he disappears from the microphone before anyone can ask him questions.
It’s reminiscent of John Kerry’s hunting blunders in his race against George W. Bush in 2004.
Kerry Thinks Midwesterners Are Idiots, “Can I Get Me a Hunting License Here?”
…But this is Kerry, going in for a hunting license yesterday in Ohio. He’s going into a sporting goods store. This is what he said.
KERRY: Can I get me a hunting license here?
RUSH: Did you hear that? “Can I get me a huntin’ license heyah?” Can I get me a hunting license here? Now, ladies and gentlemen, we all know that John Kerry doesn’t speak that way. We know it. But that’s what he thinks the people in Ohio will judge him as a real guy, if he walks in there and says: “Hey, can I get me a hunting license here?” But he blew it because it’s not, “Can I get me a hunting license?” If he really wanted to carry this off, he should have said, “Hey, can I get me a huntin’ license in here, dude?” or some such thing as that. So, I mean, if there’s any doubt, folks. The whole thing was a put on photo op. The Democrats today are even admitting that’s what it was. But Kerry has to go in and say, “Can I get me a hunting license here?”
Bruce Rauner is trying to follow that template with his Carhartt jacket and remarks about his “huntin'” dog.
Also telling was Rauner’s absence at the Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day last week in Springfield, where three of the four Republicans seeking the nomination for governor were present and delivered short remarks to thousands of gun owners in town to lobby for gun rights.
Guns Save Life’s very own Don Huskey caught up with Mr. Rauner when he was down in Effingham in recent days, courting local Republicans in his race for the Republication nomination.
Initially, Huskey spoke with one of Rauner’s aides and asked about Rauner’s campaign manager, Ron Gidwitz donating $5,000 to an anti-gun organization.
“His aide got all huffy with me,” Huskey said. “Clearly I’d hit a sore nerve by even asking.”
Mr. Huskey went on to say that he pressed the aide for an explanation.
The response from the kid who looked like he wasn’t too far out of college?
Paraphrasing: “We don’t know where all the checks went. Do you know where all of your checks are going?”
Huskey chuckled. “My response to that was ‘You’re damn right I do!’. Bruce needs to clarify this because a lot of us want to know about it!”
The two of them went back and forth briefly, and a while later at the event, Rauner came over to Huskey. He refused to answer Huskey’s questions on his position relating to gun rights, but instead offered to meet and talk about it at a later time. “Like that’s ever going to happen,” last year’s GSL Effingham coordinator laughed.
We’re not impressed with the fact Bruce claims to have a good “huntin'” dog, bought with his vast wealth. We would be a lot more satisfied if he would address the issue of gun rights in Illinois.
In the end, it would seem that Prairie State residents are likely to see a Rauner – Quinn race in the fall for governor.
If Rauner really believes he can win this race without support of gun rights supporters and other traditional conservative blocks, then he will be in for quite a shock.
Then again, maybe he’s running as a favor to Democrats to help ensure Gov. “Clueless” Pat Quinn can handily win re-election.
As a test, there is an open gun range in Crimea….
John- Is there any information about who to vote FOR? I’m still at a loss. Who is the best of the other three? I haven’t seen anything in the NRA magazines about endorsements. How about talking about it briefly tomorrow night?
Can’t endorse or recommend per tax rules.
John
Understand you can’t endorse. Don’t need an endorsement, just more information on the other three so we can decide, just like the information in this article on Rauner. What are their positions, voting records, etc.? Don’t know where else to go to get that.
I’m leaning Dillard.
None of them are perfect.
They’re all (Brady, Dillard and Rutherford) going to split the conservatives’ votes. The establishment Republicans will give us this defective Rauner.
And once again, my fear is that the Illinois State Republican party will give us another complete failure of a ticket. And then they’ll blame us for not getting out the vote.
It’s why I haven’t given a dime to the IL GOP for going on 12 years now. That’s not going to change is Rauner heads the ticket this fall.
As Frank Wright would say, “They can go commit an unsanitary act with their horse.”
Sam
At IGOLD, Dillard bad-mouthed Brady and Brady bad-mouthed Dillard. Rutherford was the only one that stood on his own merits without trying to tear down his opponents. That goes a long way in Rutherford getting my vote. Rutherford has also been a constant at past IGOLD’s.
I’ve been a supporter of Dan’s long before he was Treasurer. He’s 100% the real deal when it comes to gun rights. He would have made a great governor.
But he’s toast. He BLEW IT (in more ways than one). He should have just come out and owned it, but hiding in the closet and letting these guys mop up the floor with him over these allegations has destroyed any chance he had. With polling numbers this bad, a vote for him is a vote for Rauner.
dont vote for anyone with a (D) or an (R) next to their name. Vote for the person who isnt owned by a party and who’s position is the closest to your own. That means you need to do your homework.
I too called Rayne campaign office to find out about his 2nd Amendment position. I too received the same talking points. He has a great hunting dog and more crap. I asked about the manager donation. The reply was persons are free to donate to whom they desire. I told the guy I am a minister and to be careful about talking points. I was told there was nothing more to add. Ok. He will not get my vote. Dillard at least came to a GSL meeting, so he will get my vote. But as previous posts say, we’ll be stuck with Raune.
I liked Brady 4 years ago and still like him, old “Clueless” only won like 3 counties, don’t know if Brady can do it this time but he is much better than Rauner any day. Rauner is trying to buy the nomination with all his propaganda, which the low-information rino-voters will drink up. Think I prefer Rutherford over Dillard but any of the three would be better than ol’ Clueless and Rauner!
I still like Rutherford, but have no real problem with Brady or Dillard. My fear is the three will split the vote and Rauner will sail through the primary. Rauner has a good strategy for getting elected, never go to debates or anywhere you will have to answer questions. That way the “low information voters” will not hear anything but his talking points in his advertisements. I will admit his talking points sound good if that is as far as you dig into who he is. All in all a scary election. Jim.
My take is that all of them have positives and negatives… the important thing is that Quinn gets tossed out on his can in November.
Rutherford: I like him, but he’s done… stick a fork in him, he should have dropped out weeks (or months) ago.
Brady: Voted for him in 2010, like his stance on 2nd Amendment issues. The fact that he lost to Quinn last time is a strike against him though. I don’t see him winning the nomination or the election.
Dillard: possibly in favor of “assault weapons” ban. Has big endorsements from lots of different unions, which makes me wonder…
Rauner: Sounds good, but nothing solid on anything except term limits… but term limits alone can go a long way towards fixing the mess this state is in, so that may be enough to get him elected.
Based on the polls, Rauner is probably going to win the primary easily, barring a huge scandal in the next week. My fear is that some of our friends to the north will pull the same crap they pulled in 2010 and vote for Quinn rather than a Republican they find “scary”.
Well it is a known fact that Rauner and Rahm are best friends Bruce gave Rahm a lot of money to get him rolling in business. And go to the White House and of course now they. Vacation together. So I think what we have is a democrat running for governor on the republican ticket with enough money to buy a ride so which ever party wins the election the democrat. Agenda will prevail. The only thing to stop that would be for Rauner to not win and a true republican. To win the election —— just my thoughts on it –“”–
Its pretty sad when the current lot of Republican candidates are the best this state has to offer. That said I will not vote for anyone that supports gun control. The lessor of all evils is Brady. Dullard supports gun bans and Rutherford’s got to much bad press to win. Look at the numbers Brady is very close to Dullard. Close enough to challenge Rauner
I gave up on Illinois politics years ago. I still go through the motions of voting in the primaries and the general elections because that’s what good citizens do, but I do it knowing that it’s a waste of my time. Crooks and Democrats own the state and with gerrymandering just about guaranteeing Democrat victories statewide forever, that’s just how it is.
Did ya see their new add Bruce and his wife. Where she says she’s a democrat. Well I think he is too so what is this all coming to ???