Rich Morthland, who was tapped by Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) to be her running mate in her bid to unseat Gov. Bruce Rauner, said Ives is starting to elevate Illinois by doing some of the things Rauner promised, but never saw fit to follow through on.
“What they’re saying where I am is (that) the governor ran on really great policies. He sold us himself, but he also sold us a bill of goods,” Morthland said during a recent appearance on WIND radio show "Illinois Rising" hosted by Dan Proft, who also is a principal in Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication.
“He (Rauner) has not governed in keeping with the promises he made,” Morthland said. “He ran a great campaign, made some awesome promises. Jeanne Ives is going to go into that office and keep the sound promises he made.”
Rich Morthland
Morthland said people are showing their disdain for Rauner’s dereliction and him reneging on his promises by giving up on Illinois altogether.
“So many people are voting with their feet and you do that over pocketbook issues,” Morthland said. “Jeanne Ives is a complete package of leadership to the state of Illinois. She has continued being a leader in her community and she is a leader in Springfield. She is somebody that gets in the nuts and bolts of Illinois government and is working to fix Illinois’ problems.”
A farmer, educator and former member of the General Assembly, Morthland, who lives in Cordova, said the team of he and Ives represents everything that is Illinois.
“It was the wisdom of Rep. Ives to look for a well-balanced team,” he said. “We together reflect a whole lot better the balance that is Illinois. Jeanne Ives has brought me on the ticket because of agriculture. It is still the heartbeat of Illinois. We care very deeply about issues facing agriculture, farming. We have to do it because we have a hungry world to feed.”
Morthland said he and other members of the campaign will be crisscrossing the state promoting their message, with him particularly spending plenty of time in the downstate area.
“We will be putting miles and miles on our cars,” he said. “There is such reception for this message. We have to stop the bleeding of policy in Illinois because if we don’t we’re not going to stop the bleeding of population.”
Ives, 52, a U.S. Military Academy graduate and mother of five, has previously vowed that her campaign will be about restoring common sense to the cash-strapped state and regaining the trust of frustrated voters.
The Ives-Morthland team has installed Chicago GOP Chairman Chris Cleveland as campaign chairman.
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