Rauner staffer's live tweets no Favorites of Dems

SPRINGFIELD — It was sort of a virtual debate.

State Rep. Lou Lang took to the House floor on Thursday to denounce Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration for accusing Democrats of launching a “sexual smear campaign” against education czar Beth Purvis.

A key Rauner aide answered back.

On Twitter.

“Seriously, Lou. Give it up. It is a sexist smear campaign you and your colleagues continue to engage in,” Rauner’s communication director Lance Trover (@ltrover) tweeted.

Trover also tweeted: “Lou Lang – another politician Madigan controls,” and “Speaker Madigan to Gov: please, please just raise taxes so we can all go home!!”

As House Speaker Mike Madigan took questions from reporters after the House session, Trover tweeted: “The Speaker is the best spokesman for everything that is wrong in this state.”

He got a couple of retweets, also from Rauner staffers.

Democrats were not hitting the “Favorite” star.

“I’m not sure that the live tweeting while the House is in session is an appropriate use of his time,” said Lang, a Skokie Democrat. “He wasn’t making benign comments regarding public policies or public policy disagreements. He was actually making political statements on state time.”

Lang called it a “violation of appropriate behavior by a state government official.”

But Trover, whose office issued two press releases Thursday, again citing “Speaker Madigan and the politicians he controls,” said his tweets are part of a message he’s trying to send.

“I’m the communications director for the governor and we’re going to use every platform at our disposal to expose sham hearings and phony budgets like they’re pushing,” said Trover, who has about 1,025 Twitter followers.

Lang has a Twitter account with about 1,568 followers.

Madigan is not on Twitter.