The timing of Tuesday’s announcement that over the next two years Amazon will create 1,000 new jobs in Illinois has some questioning if it was timed to benefit Gov. Pat Quinn’s re-election effort.
Amazon, however, says that’s not the case.
“It’s very recently, within the last couple of weeks, it all coalesced together,” said Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president of Global Public Policy. “Obviously I’ve been working on this for quite some time.”
Meanwhile, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner challenged Quinn’s opinion on Ebola procedures, calling for a travel ban.
“It’s pretty clear in talking to Senator Kirk’s staff and other folks here in Illinois and around that state, we need to do everything we can, reasonable protections, to protect the health of Illinois voters, Illinois citizens,” Rauner said.
With women’s vote key in the upcoming election, Diana Rauner once again stars in one of the closing ads of her husband’s campaign.
“Bruce doesn’t owe anybody anything and that scares people in power,” she says in the ad.
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Diana Rauner runs the Ounce of Prevention, an agency providing early childhood education help to at-risk children. It received $12 million in state grant money last year. Bruce Rauner declined to comment when asked if his wife planned to continue working for the agency.
Later, in an email, Diana Rauner said, “I do intend to continue my unpaid work at the Ounce when Bruce becomes governor.”
She’s not the only spouse who leads an agency that receives states funds.
For years, the state has funded the Illinois Arts Council, run by Shirley Madigan. Her husband is Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.
