McHenry Times

Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock) is advising Gov. Bruce Rauner on how best to take the only path he thinks Rauner has to staying in the governor’s mansion beyond 2018.

Rauner barely edged out Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) in last week’s GOP primary, but Reick stresses he’s still far from being home free.

“So Governor, now that we’re stuck with you, here’s a little bit of advice,” Reick wrote on his website. “You need us more than we need you. The only way you can win in November is if Republican House candidates drag you across the finish line. But for that to happen, you’re going to have to check your ego at the door and accept the General Assembly as a co-equal branch of government and admit that we don’t work for you.”

Rep. Steve Reick

Reick seemed to take particular offense with Rauner’s tone and attitude on election night when he said, “I am honored and humbled by this victory.”

“He should be humbled – he should’ve lost,” Reick added. “Honor? Calling Jeanne Ives ‘Madigan’s favorite Republican’ may have swayed enough people to put him over the top, but the smell it leaves behind is the smell of mendacity, and it will carry through to November.

"A friend of mine observed early on that Bruce Rauner looks at the members of the General Assembly, especially the Republican members, as employees at a company he just bought that he wouldn’t have hired had he been in a position to do so in the first place.”

Reick added he wouldn’t have expected Rauner to act as he has in some instances given his background.

“For a guy who made a fortune analyzing numbers, you’ve done a lousy job of understanding the rule of 60-30,” he wrote. “You’ve been in office for almost four years and still haven’t figured out that the only way to get rid of (House Speaker) Mike Madigan is for Republicans to pick up nine seats in November. The real action needs to happen in the House races, but can you set your ego aside long enough to let that happen? I’m afraid that what we’re going to get is seven months of you chanting Madigan! Madigan! and more Madigan! with the hope that repeating it often enough will make him disappear. Do that and you’ll let the only chance you have slip away, and with it the state of Illinois.”

Finally, Reick warned Rauner he needs to get this right if he wants to have any chance of continuing in Springfield.

“Governor, you’ve managed to mangle pretty much everything you’ve touched since you got elected,” he added. “If you want a second term, don’t mangle this.”