Republican Bruce Rauner blasted Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday for the latest criminal charges tied to his now-defunct Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.
“This is just more indication of Pat Quinn’s failures as governor,” Rauner said at a news conference Sunday at the La Quinta Inn and Suites in downtown Chicago.
The newest charges involve a former NRI employee accused of helping burglarize six homes in Riverside and North Riverside in 2011, the Sun-Times reported.
Federal prosecutors last month subpoenaed the emails of Quinn’s former chief of staff and two other onetime top aides in connection with the $54.5 million program.
The gubernatorial hopeful has repeatedly knocked Quinn for the state’s handling of the botched anti-violence program now under federal criminal investigation.
“Quinn said it was all about fighting violence and fighting criminal behavior,” Rauner said. “But it looks like some of his NRI program money was given to a criminal and some of that money was used to defend that criminal — it looks like.”
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He also bemoaned the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling Friday to block a vote on state lawmaker term limits from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot.
“We have politicians more concerned with holding power than about delivering results,” Rauner said.
The Quinn campaign fired back Sunday, pointing to legal problems connected to private equity powerhouse GTCR while Rauner was chairman.
The firm’s subsidiaries include a bankrupt nursing home accused of patient abuse and a brokerage firm that allegedly defrauded clients of millions of dollars.
“Mr. Rauner is the only one in this race who is familiar with corruption — in fact he has profited from it,” Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said in an email to the Chicago Sun-Times.
She added: “Nobody should take any ethical advice from Mr. Rauner. He has devoted his entire career to evading responsibility in order to take money and run.”
A poll by the Garin Hart Yang Research Group last week showed Rauner up 3.5 points, within the survey’s margin for error.
