From Doug Ibendahl at Republican News Watch:
Ongoing revelations about Bruce Rauner’s shady business practices are having a devastating impact on the challenger’s poll numbers which are sinking faster than that barge in the Chicago River last week.
The truth became the first casualty as Rauner desperately tries to keep his entire campaign from going under.
So desperate is Rauner in fact that his campaign resorted to using a distinguished reporter’s wife as a lever to intimidate and bully that reporter into accepting Rauner’s latest untruths.
Two weeks ago the Chicago Sun-Times published a devastating article which includes alarming allegations that Bruce Rauner himself personally threatened a female executive and her family.
According to sworn testimony by another executive deposed under oath in the case, Rauner said this about that executive, Christine Kirk:
“I will bury her. I will make her radioactive. She will never get another job anywhere, ever. I will bankrupt her with legal fees. I don’t know if she has a family or not, but if she does, she better think twice about this.”
It’s easy to understand why Rauner didn’t want that Sun-Times story to see the light of day.
But while Rauner’s fear of that story is understandable, his conduct in response is inexcusable.
One of the lead Sun-Times reporters on that story was Dave McKinney. I don’t personally know Mr. McKinney at all. But I’ve read his writing for a long time and I know him by reputation. Dave McKinney is top notch, and as unbiased and professional as they come.
A second and related bombshell story came late Friday night, this one from Crain’s Chicago Business. That newspaper reports that Dave McKinney has hired former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins to investigate whether Rauner’s campaign unlawfully attempted to interfere with McKinney’s employment at the Sun-Times in retaliation for his reporting on Rauner.
Continue reading: RNW
