Facing a growing storm of criticism, gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann answered questions from Dan and Amy about political mailings his campaign has distributed. McCann’s campaign sent out mailers describing suburban Republican Rep. Tom Morrison as a “Rauner RINO”.
This is the mailer that @McCann_Sam is using to help Speaker Madigan win House races. It may have just cost him the endorsement of the pro-life Illinois Family Institute. pic.twitter.com/uzcshGtcZ6
— Mark Maxwell (@MarkMaxwellTV) October 17, 2018
The mailings have prompted a number of state Republican organizations, conservative groups, and elected officials to pull their support of McCann, just days before the gubernatorial election, including the Illinois Family Institute and Illinois Family Action, Rep. Jeanne Ives, and Illinois Right to Life Action, among others.
McCann spoke with Dan and Amy for over fifteen minutes, answering questions about his motivation for sending the mailers and whether or not his true intentions are to help protect Michael Madigan’s power in the state legislature.
You can listen to, watch, and read a portion of the transcript of the interview below:
DAN: Good morning Dan and Amy. He is … the Conservative Party candidate for governor, State Sen. Sam McCann and he apparently has been down in Southern Illinois and the reception’s been a little bit spotty, but I think we’ve got him now. Sam thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
MCCANN: Good morning, Dan. Thank you for having me. Dan and Amy, thank you.
DAN: Sam, um, is Jeanne Ives a conservative?
MCCANN: I don’t know. You tell me. I like that. So, I guess you’re assuming you’re talking about the mailers?
DAN: Yeah.
MCCANN: I didn’t accuse anyone of being a member of the Communist Party. I didn’t accuse them of high crimes and misdemeanors. They [the mailers] didn’t say anything about their character other than they supported Bruce Rauner. And have said publicly over and over again if any one of those folks would publicly disavow their allegiance to Bruce Rauner, I’ll send a card into their district thanking them for their leadership. It didn’t call into question anything private or personal.
DAN: I’m not saying it did. it’s saying that the most conservative, the most principled conservative members of the General Assembly, as well as candidates. I start with Tom Morrison in Palatine whose conservative credentials are beyond reproach by any reasonable measure. I mean give me an issue where he’s taken the conservative position…where he has not taken the conservative position for example. Give me a specific issue and yet you call him a Rauner RINO. And this is mail that’s being paid for by the Operating Engineers.
MCCANN: You have a pretty cozy relationship with the Operating Engineers…
DAN: I know. If you let me finish I will say so. I’ve known Jim Sweeney. I knew Bill Dougan before Jim Sweeney. I like the Operating Engineers fine. That doesn’t mean that I agree with everything they do and here’s what they’re doing. Here’s what I suggest they’re doing and you respond to me.
They [the mailers] didn’t say anything about their character other than they supported Bruce Rauner. And have said publicly over and over again if any one of those folks would publicly disavow their allegiance to Bruce Rauner, I’ll send a card into their district thanking them for their leadership. It didn’t call into question anything private or personal.
MCCANN: You know you want me to get on the phone, so you could do a commercial for Tom.
DAN: No, I’m not I’m not doing it. Well you’re doing mail for Tom Morrison. I do my own stuff as well but I’m going to tell you what I think is happening and you can respond. That’s the point. To explain the decisions behind your mail pieces and I’ll give you all the time you want to explain. Here’s what I think the Operating Engineers are doing through you. Madigan’s bidding. They’ve folded completely and with Madigan too and you’re the conduit to help them take out suburban Republicans to make Madigan the speaker. So, are you running for governor to make Madigan the speaker forever?
MCCANN: Have you ever heard of the Law of Conservation of Energy. It’s OK if you haven’t. I’m a bit of a nerd. I will admit that I remember great chemistry learning about that principle. What it says is that energy can neither be created nor destroy it can only be transferred or transformed. So, this is what partisan politics has turned us into. You asked me to give you an example. Are you still there?
DAN: Yeah, I’m here. I’m letting you talk, go ahead.
MCCANN: You asked me to give you an example or your guy didn’t support Rauner to begin with because Rauner is a pro-abortion uber-liberal progressive. The only thing that appealed to the Republican Party about Bruce Rauner was the union busting tendencies and quite frankly nothing in the Illinois Republican platform that even talks about organized labor let alone busting them. So, really, I don’t even know why that appeals to people but hear me out. Tom Morrison called me up and said, “Sam, I can’t believe you’re not supporting Rauner, we need this, we need this. I’ve got video from four years ago when he was put on the spot people said, “why are you supporting Rauner after the primary?” “Well, I don’t really want to. But, we got to. Our evil is less evil than their evil.” And you see the Law of the Conservation of Energy says energy can either be created or destroyed, it can only be transferred or transformed. The energy that we have at the ballot box was created by the Constitution and endowed in each individual and over the last 200 plus years has handed that to the party. It’s kind of like a Bears Packers rivalry. You ask people why they hate each other. Oh, we don’t even know it’s just because that’s what we do. That’s the problem, Tom Morrison helped Bruce Rauner get elected four years ago and I have text conservations about this. Tom Morrison told me said “I’ll be there to keep Bruce Rauner honest on the social issues over the next four years. And he failed miserably.
DAN: And he also and he also broke with Bruce Rauner when Bruce Rauner betrayed him and supported Jeannie Ives in the primary.
MCCANN: Is he and Jeanne still supporting Bruce Rauner? They are. They’re voting for him. They’re transferring their energy to abortion.
DAN: And you’re transferring your energy to a Madigan super majority. So what kind of sense does that make when you’re running for governor going after Republican state legislative candidates. You have limited energy to transfer.
MCCANN: All they have to do is disavow themselves from Bruce Rauner and I’ll send a mailer into their district. I’ll use that money to send mailers into their district them for their leadership.
DAN: Yeah, but are you running for governor or not? You’re running for governor and you’re attacking Republican state representatives. Explain the politics of that.
MCCANN: The interesting thing is they’re taking money from HRO, which takes money from [Operating Engineers] 150. So, it’s OK for your people… for the people you like to do that.
DAN: No, it’s not. It’s not Sam. Sam, that’s a nice try but here’s the thing. I’ve already addressed that argument. That’s not the issue at all. I know Durkin has taken half a million bucks from Operating Engineers 150. That’s not the point. Here’s my point. My point is you’re using the money and 150 is using you to provide a supermajority for Mike mad because that’s 150 play in this election cycle, the money to Republicans notwithstanding. Well that’s what they’re doing and you’re a part of that.
MCCANN: I’m calling out RINOs so that when RINOs disavow themselves of Rauner, then the base of conservatives will understand that Rauner has no path. I do have a path. Let me ask you something: do you think Rauner has a legitimate path to victory? If I got out today, could Bruce Rauner win?
DAN: No.
AMY: No.
MCCANN: Now thank you for being…I appreciate that. That’s the honest truth and I thank you and I applaud you.
DAN: Yeah, because I know the numbers.
MCCANN: Yeah, right. But here’s what could happen. Here’s what could happen. You and I have very similar opinions on the Illinois Republican Party because if it’s a party of defeat, retreat, and repeat. Defeat, retreat, and repeat. That’s all this party does. All this party wants to go for is Democrat Lite. We have created this four way race the closest thing to an electoral college that the state of Illinois has ever seen or will ever see. This is not peculiar to get a downstate conservative. The first pro-life governor in history, since Roe v. Wade. Even the Republicans who have been governors with Roe v. Wade have been pro-choice. We have an opportunity to cause, to effect a paradigm shift because if I can get that base that 30…that 30 percent who are supporting Rauner, the 5 to 10 percent who will support me, and the 4 to 5 percent peeled off Pritzker, who are more moderate conservative union members who are only voting for him because they’re scared to death of Bruce Rauner. We have a path to victory. J.B. Pritzker hasn’t broken 50 percent yet J.B. Pritzker and Mike Madigan, you are right. Together they will destroy this state. And that’s what I’m trying to stop.
AMY: Well, I mean with all due respect I don’t think you’re going to win. I don’t think Governor Rauner is going to win. So why would you try and destroy Tom Morrison. It just makes no sense. It’s like we’re eating our own. Why would you do this to your own party?
MCCANN: I’m not trying to destroy Tom Morrison. I’m trying to get Tom Morrison to be honest with his voters and with the rest of Illinois. To be honest with himself. To confess…to look in the mirror. Tom, if you’re listening to me look in the mirror. Who do you stand with today? That’s all you got to say. That’s it.
DAN: Yeah, here’s the thing Sam: I mean if you want to see the likes of Tom Morrison or Peter Breene defeated then your conservative party and your stance…
MCCANN: And I told you my stance.
DAN: And you think by trying to get some conservatives peeled off, conservatives who don’t know better, peeled off two weeks before an election is the way to do that?
MCCANN: No, I think getting them to take a public stand, who will take the right stand, and just say they don’t even have to endorse me. They just come out and publicly say that Bruce Rauner can’t win the election and shouldn’t win the election.
DAN: Well they did that when they supported Jeannie Ives in the primary. That’s the definition of saying…
MCCANN: That was six months ago.
DAN: You just said Bruce Rauner shouldn’t win the election. By supporting a primary opponent against them, that’s what they were saying, weren’t they?
MCCANN: That’s what they said six months. What do they say today? Tom Morrison is participating in a Walk for Life tomorrow, but he’s taking money and support from Bruce Rauner. And he’s propped Bruce Rauner up. Yes, he peeled off from him in the primary and I give him credit for that. I applaud him for that. But without Tom Morrison’s help and without a ton of so-called “conservatives” help, Bruce Rauner would not be the governor today and we would not have this infighting and we would not have this mess. And maybe we could have a decent Republican nominee.
DAN: If we don’t have people like Tom Morrison and Peter Breen and Mark Batnick and others in the General Assembly we don’t to worry about infighting because we won’t exist as a movement or a party.
MCCANN: All I’ve said is why don’t they get it on social media and say who do they support: pro-abortion Rauner or pro-abortion Pritzker. Pro-transgender Rauner…think about the commercial you made for Jeanne Ives. Her introductory commercial. So, we’re saying that our evil is better than they are. I mean that’s why we’re getting our butts kicked. That’s why we keep getting half victories in the General Assembly races and in these constitutional statewide races half victories with equal losses.
DAN: Look, I’m skipping the governor’s race OK as I’ve said on this show.
AMY: You’re not even going to vote for Sam?
DAN: I’m skipping the governor’s race. But the idea that like a real conservative like Morrison and Breen and Batnick and many others…
DAN: The fact that we would disagree on that relatively narrow decision should suggest that I should excommunicate them from the party or the movement is absurd.
MCCANN: I didn’t say that that’s not what the mailer said that’s not what I’m saying. Well that’s what I’m getting. I want him to look themselves in the mirror and the voters in the eye and tell them who they support whoever they support. It doesn’t have to be me. I just want an honest answer. I think voters would like to have an honest answer.
DAN: Yeah. As far as I know, I don’t know that anybody’s ducking that question. I think you’ve had people say I’m not going to work for Bruce Rauner, but I’ll vote for him because he’s better than Pritzker or some facsimile of that. I don’t think that’s really a controversy.
MCCANN: And that message is still polling nearly 30 percent. They’re transferring their energy him and he’s taking their energy and doing evil with it. When you throw a lump on a coal on the fire with the other lumps of coal, you are part of the problem. All I’m asking for is Tom Morrison and the other conservatives…why don’t they say they’re disavowing Bruce Rauner.