Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bruce Rauner clashed over competing visions for Illinois’ future in the Oct. 9 gubernatorial debate at Peoria’s WTVP studio.
With the Nov. 4 election just weeks away, the hour-long debate sponsored by the Legion of Women Voters was the first official televised gubernatorial debate for what many consider one of the country’s most highly contested governor races this election cycle.
While the debate focused on the state’s most pressing issues such as taxation, pensions and jobs instead of primarily character-focused attacks seen in recent advertisements from both campaigns, Quinn and Rauner still found little common ground.
Quinn consistently characterized Rauner as an out-of-touch billionaire and attacked his plan to reduce the state income tax rate but expand the sales tax to include more services.
“The folks who are millionaires or billionaires always want to shift taxes onto everyday people,” Quinn said. “Taxes should be based on ability to pay.”
Rauner countered by saying Illinois’ unemployment rate, lagging job growth and poor economic conditions are results of Quinn’s policies, and his proposal to impose an additional three percent tax on incomes more than $1 million would only further hurt families, business owners and Illinois’ already sluggish economy.
“We have got to grow our economy,” Rauner said. “We can’t solve our problems by just raising taxes on families like our current governor has done.”
Junior elementary education major Jennifer Simmons, one of nearly 20 Bradley students in attendance at the debate, said she wasn’t sure how she felt about the candidates prior to the debate, but attending the debate helped her decide who she is going to vote for this election.
“Quinn has had six years to make an impact on the state of Illinois,” Simmons said. “However, Illinois continues to have a suffering economy. Rauner has a record as a successful businessman … I believe he can help Illinois’ economy recover.”
The candidates disagreed on their approach to the state minimum wage as well.
“My opponent … went across this state, saying [to] eliminate the minimum wage,” Quinn said. “A person taking in $53 million a year running around Illinois saying eliminate the minimum wage. He’s adamantly against the minimum wage. Well, I’m adamantly for raising the minimum wage.”
Rauner said the Democrats were “playing political football with people’s lives” and raising the issue merely for political reasons.
“Pat Quinn has been governor for six years, and he’s had a supermajority of his party in the General Assembly,” Rauner said. “He has not increased the minimum wage in that time. If he was serious about this, he could have gotten it done.”
Quinn is seeking his second full term as governor while Rauner is running for his first publically elected office.
The candidates debated again on Oct. 14, and their final debate is slated for Oct. 20.
