Richard Goldberg has accused Democrats of not being able to count, blasted their questions as “hypocritical” and their hearings as “shams” — and he was once booted out of a committee hearing by Democratic legislators.
But Gov. Bruce Rauner insisted Wednesday that his newly promoted chief of staff does not have a “toxic” relationship with the opposition party.
“I would disagree with your characterization of the relationship between my current chief of staff in his former role as legislative liaison,” the Republican governor told a reporter asking about the “toxic” past.
“He has the respect of people on both sides of the aisle in the General Assembly, great respect.”
A year ago, Democrats kicked Goldberg — then Rauner’s deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs — out of a Committee of the Whole meeting. House Speaker Mike Madigan later told reporters that his members were just enforcing an “established rule” that barred aides to the governor from circulating with representative during committee hearings.
But the boot came on the same day Goldberg wrote a letter questioning the mathematical skills of a Democratic legislator who had raised questions about the salaries of employees in the governor’s office.
“Given your support for a budget out of balance by $4 billion, finding errors in basic arithmetic is not a great surprise,” Goldberg wrote.
Goldberg also butted heads with Democrats last year when they called him before a House committee to testify about why Rauner’s education secretary’s $250,000 annual salary was being paid out of the Department of Human Resources, whose budget is designed to help the state’s most vulnerable.
Goldberg repeatedly called it a “sham hearing” and at one point told House members: “I think this line of questioning is really hypocritical.”
State Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago, fired back: “I think the only sham that’s going on today is the answers you’re giving us right now. So if you want to speak to us like that, I’m gonna speak the same way towards you. Because I’m not a little child that’s going to sit here and be chastised by the governor’s office.”
Later that day on the House floor, Democrats — including Madigan — gave state Rep. Lou Lang a standing ovation after he blasted Goldberg in a speech, saying “You used that committee time as an opportunity to be insulting and to be degrading and to say things that are beneath the dignity of this chamber.”
But Rauner shrugged off that history on Wednesday, when a reporter asked him about Goldberg at a Springfield news conference.
“Clearly, there’s stressful dynamics when we don’t have a budget and we don’t have reforms,” Rauner said.
“In his role, frankly, now as chief of staff he’ll probably be interacting with the Legislature much less than he’s been in the past,” Rauner said of Goldberg.
“He’s a super, super talent, extraordinarily hard working and driven and very creative. And I think he’s served our administration well, and I think he’s going to be an outstanding chief of staff.”
Rauner also told reporters that his administration is “doing heroic things” to keep the state running during the budget mess.
“How do we do anything without a budget? I mean it’s hard. I have to say, I give our team in our administration tremendous credit for being able to run the government for 18 months with massive deficits and no budget,” the governor said.
“It’s extraordinary performance by the leaders in our team. We’re doing heroic things.
“The people of Illinois deserve better than the historic financial management and our current financial management of the state. We need balanced budgets. We don’t have one. We need economic growth. We don’t have it. We need higher paying jobs. we don’t have ‘em.”
