ICYMI: Champaign News-Gazette: “The GOP Dilemma Cannot be Understated”

Over the weekend, the Champaign News-Gazette Editorial Board sounded the alarm on Republicans’ disunity after a close and heated primary battle that nearly cost failed Governor Bruce Rauner his party’s nomination. Two months after the election, Rauner’s primary opponent still regularly attacks him and the Governor was forced to cede control of his party.
Read the full article from the Champaign News-Gazette Editorial Board here or excerpts below:

“[O]ne of Pritzker’s greatest strengths is that the Democratic Party is united behind his candidacy…
“Conversely, Republican Rauner is trying to put his fractured party back together after a bitter primary election he almost lost to state Rep. Jeanne Ives.
“For Rauner to have any kind of chance, he has to make peace with GOP dissenters angered by, among other things, the governor’s decision to sign legislation authorizing taxpayer-funded abortions.
“Complete unity may not be possible with GOP conservatives, many of whom would rather Democrat Pritzker win as a means of ideologically cleansing the GOP…
“The GOP dilemma cannot be understated.
“Just as family fights are the worst — leaving deep scars and long memories — so, too, are intra-party battles. Democrats and Republicans can fight ferociously over the issues, and it hardly matters because that’s what they are supposed to do. It’s different within a political party, where personal and political differences generate bitterness that only dissipates with time and sometimes not at all.

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