Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner Tuesday is announcing his running mate. As IPR'S Brian Mackey reports, she's a Wheaton city councilwoman with little experience in statewide politics.
Her name is Evelyn PacinoSanguinetti. She studied piano performance and went on to become a lawyer, including a stint working for former Republican attorney general Jim Ryan.
Her running mate, Rauner, is a wealthy businessman with no prior experience running for office. He's focused on attacking longtime Illinois politicians and institutions, especially labor unions. In a Web video, Sanguinetti uses her own hard-luck background to press that case. She says she failed the first grade.
"I was uninspired and disinterested, as were my teachers. I felt the system failed me. These unions in Chicago, the schoolteachers' unions, are really failing their kids."
Sanguinetti says she was saved by a magnet school, and wants other kids to have that kind of opportunity.
Rauner is the last of the four Republicans to pick lieutenant governor candidates. That leaves incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn as the only candidate yet to announce his running mate.