Our editorial urging Illinois Republicans to vote for conservative state representative Jeanne Ives in Tuesday’s primary, over the incumbent, Bruce Rauner (“who has forfeited any claim on his party’s nod”), makes mention of a debate the two had in January before the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune.
Yeah, it was a drubbing — of the incumbent. As the Tribune’s John Kass wrote in a column partially titled “Ives Crushes Rauner”:
But on Monday, judging just from his eyes and body language after debating Ives — a West Point graduate — Rauner looked like a man who’d been whipped.
He just couldn’t quite come to grips with the whipping.
And he won’t debate her again, because she crushed it and she crushed him and it wasn’t pretty. . . .
Jeanne Ives crushed it so hard, way up into the upper deck, Rauner’s reelection dreams bouncing up there all alone, echoing desperately, and all the governor seemed to be able to say was “Mike Madigan” again and again. How many times did he say Mike Madigan? You couldn’t keep count.
See for yourself. Watch the debate video here.