Quinn Appointee Says He Will Step Down If Rauner Wants Someone Else
(CBS) -- Just one day after Governor Pat Quinn's campaign chief gets a two-year, big money state contract, another long-time Quinn ally says a similar deal for him is wrong.
He's agreed to step down from his 11th hour, year-long appointment if incoming Governor Bruce Rauner wants someone else there.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports it's about conscience of two men who've both known the governor for more than 30 years, deciding that they couldn't accept the year-long re-nomination which would have saddled Bruce Rauner with still another Quinn ally he didn't want.
While Pat Quinn chose not to replace 12 of the 15 holdover board members of the Illinois Finance Authority, he did move to re-nominate its $187,000 a year veteran executive director, Chris Meister, which the board today approved, with one condition.
"Having secured from Mr. Meister his pledge that if asked by the incoming governor he would tender his resignation," said Chairman William Brandt.
Brandt, explained that leaving the position open would have jeopardized hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for local businesses. So, in what amounted to a handshake deal, Meister stays, for now.
"I'm a public servant," Meister said. "I serve at the behest of the board upon the nomination of the governor. It would not be the right thing to do."
A spokesman for the governor-elect called it "...welcome news that Mr. Meister is willing to take that step if requested....One would only hope that other Quinn-aligned appointees would show similar judgment."
Appointees like Tony Bertucca, the architect of Quinn's unsuccessful re-election campaign, who just yesterday was given a two-year, $180,000 a year post with the Illinois Sports Facilities authority.
Brandt went to high school with Quinn and said what Meister is doing could apply to Bertucca too.
"I think that a fresh breeze has blown into Illinois and the new governor should have every opportunity to put his own team in place," Brandt said.
CBS 2 tried to reach Bertucca to see what he'd do if Rauner asked him to step down and got no response. But sticking Rauner with the man who launched some pretty vicious campaign assaults against him, whether it was by Quinn, who denies it, or his majority of the board which approved it, might be considered the ultimate political dirty trick.
