Bruce and Diana Rauner Tour Crumbling Governor's Mansion

"Honey! We're ... home?"

The Civil War-era Executive Mansion, aka the Illinois governor's digs, is due for an upgrade—especially since the Polar Vortex of 2014 led to significant water damage. 

While Gov. Pat Quinn chose not to live in the Springfield manse, his successor Bruce Rauner aims to make it his permanent HQ as he begins his first term. The multiple-home-owner and his wife, Diana, are decamping from their Winnetka base down to the historic property, which recently suffered from a leaky roof and flooded basement.

The Rauners' spokesman, Mike Schrimpf, tells Capitol Fax blogger Rich Miller that the future First Couple took a tour on Thursday and are (allegedly) happy with the place. 

"Bruce and Diana are excited and looking forward to moving to Springfield," says Schrimpf. "Clearly there’s some work that needs to be done on the people’s house and Bruce has committed to raising private funds to make the necessary repairs."

After a round of bad press, Quinn finally caved on long-delayed repairs and ordered emergency fixes costing in the ballpark of $40,000. The prevailing theory on why he held off on taking action to rescue the decaying landmark: An apparent skittishness toward seeming hypocritical after loudly complaining about the state's $50 million project to restore the Capitol's west wing.

When Rauner is done with it, the Executive Mansion will look like this.

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