Dupage Policy Journal

Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton)  wants voters to know ousted Illinois Lottery Control Board Chairman Blair Garber was not speaking for her or the Republican Party as a whole when he recently berated the town of East St. Louis in a Twitter post as the “sh**hole of the universe.”

“It’s alarming that he made such a comment,” Ives, who is challenging Gov. Bruce Rauner in the Republican primary, told the Prairie State Wire. “It was totally uncalled for.”

Appointed to the board by Rauner in 2016, Garber was quickly shown the door after his comments spread like wildfire, though some like Ives argue the damage may already be done.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner

“This reflects poorly on the administration,” she said. “I’m glad Rauner did the right thing by forcing his resignation, but by the two being so closely aligned and Garber being such a high-ranking official there plenty of concern still remains.”

Garber also serves as a member of the Republican State Central Committee, representing the 9th Congressional District that includes Rauner’s hometown of Winnetka.

“They have been aligned for a while,” Ives added.

Meanwhile, with just weeks remaining before March 20 primary, Ives recently blasted Rauner as a traitor to the voters who turned out for him in 2014 in a new  “Ives: The Choice for Republican Voters In 2018” YouTube advertisement.

“Illinois Republicans have a choice to make in the 2018 election,” she says in the video. “They can either concede defeat by re-electing one of the most deservedly unpopular governors in the nation, or they can get the revolution they were promised in 2014.”

Ives goes on to accuse Rauner of having turned his back on the hard-working families who put him over the top in electing the state’s first Republican governor in more than a decade.

Rauner earned the dubious distinction of “worst Republican governor in America," in a National Review poll.