Dupage Policy Journal

Gov. Bruce Rauner says he'll fight for Illinoisans. But only if he wins re-election.

If he loses, Rauner's wife, Diana, says she and Bruce are out of here. 

"Bruce and I are moving to Italy," a source says she flippantly told a group of "mostly Democrat" women from DuPage County last Thursday.

The occasion was an event at the home of Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico and his wife, Julie Cole Chirico, chief fundraiser for embattled, but Rauner-financed House GOP Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs).

Diana Rauner's Italy remark was a response to a question she received about Illinois' stunning rate of outmigration.

An attendee noted that several of her neighbors had left the state, asking Diana Rauner what her husband planned to do to encourage people to stay.

"She made a vague comment about stopping Madigan and then said that, if Bruce lost and they couldn't stop Madigan, they were moving to Italy," the source told DuPage Policy Journal. "It was awkward."

In addition to employing his wife, Durkin and his campaign chief, David Walsh, are a longtime backers of Mayor Chirico, a moderate Republican who supports Rauner but actively opposed President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The Rauners have traveled to Italy on official business during his administration.

In Nov. 2016, Gov. Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel traveled to Rome along with State Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) Chicago Ald. Ed Burke (D-14th), former social secretary to President Barack Obama, Desiree Rogers and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to see then-Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich be elevated to cardinal.

At a co-press conference with Emanuel in Vatican City, Rauner said "this time reminds us that the good lord did not make us Republicans or Democrats."

Seven months later, Rauner would break his promise to Cardinal Cupich that he would not sign a bill that would force Illinois taxpayers to pay for abortions.