East Central Reporter

State Rep.-elect Chris Miller says Gov. Bruce Rauner was his own worst enemy in his failed reelection bid and all his finger pointing in the aftermath is just an attempt to save face.

“Anytime you’re a Republican who wanders off the party platform as much as he has, you’re going to have trouble,” Miller told the East Central Reporter. “In the end, all the things that he did to try to win votes in Cook and the collar counties didn’t garner him any votes.”

Rauner offered a much different assessment during a Dec. 13 interview with ABC News in which he fingered President Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy as one thing that hurt his chances against J.B. Pritzker, the Democrat who won the election. 

“I thought one of his biggest problems was that he didn’t embrace Trump and his policies enough,” said Miller, an Oakland Republican who easily topped Shirley Bell, his Democratic opponent, in last month’s general election for the 110th District. “I won 60 percent of the vote. That right there tells you conservatism is not dead in Illinois.”

Miller also poured cold water on Rauner’s claims that he almost walked away from it all and sought to line up someone to replace him as the party’s standard bearer.

“I find such talk strange, because there was already another Republican candidate in the race, and if he didn’t want to run he could have easily handed off to Jeanne Ives,” Miller said. “There’s no question she wanted it and would have stood for Republican values.”

The 110th House District includes Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Edgar and Lawrence counties.