RE-ELECTION ROAD JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT ROCKIER FOR QUINN

Email records of Quinn’s former chief of staff, Jack Lavin, along with those of two other top aides, have been subpoenaed by a grand jury as part of a federal probe into Quinn’s $55 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative that has been rocked by reports of waste and abuse.

That news has the potential to put the program’s problems much closer to Quinn himself.

And Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza’s latest report brings more boulders. From 2008 to 2011 (Quinn took over as governor early in 2009), the Illinois Department of Transportation hired 52 staff assistants without following hiring procedures to avoid patronage. People connected to Democratic officeholders were getting jobs from mowing grass to answering phones to setting up training. These were not at all the kinds of high-level, policy-setting jobs that would have allowed Quinn and his top aides to legally place people with political connections in them.

Quinn’s office laid off 58 of the staff assistants just before the Meza report was released. His spokesman said they also were creating a review board to oversee hiring, but the damage was cemented when former transportation secretary Ann Schneider implied she was strong-armed. Schneider said the vast majority of the assistants hired were recommended by the governor’s office and “neither I nor my staff were in a position to reject the recommended positions.”

I can just imagine the Rauner ads to come, comparing Quinn to his predecessor and running mate, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving time in a federal prison on corruption charges. Remember the ads Blagojevich used against his Republican opponent, Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, dancing the polka with then-imprisoned former GOP Gov. George Ryan? Ah, all’s nasty fair game in Illinois politics.

Rauner already is making political hay with an ad about the rejection of his term limits question for the November ballot. And his latest email soliciting donations after all this surfaced included this line: “Before Friday, Pat Quinn looked like a phony reformer. Today he looks like the second coming of Rod Blagojevich.”

Quinn’s camp suggests Rauner also is ethically challenged because of problems at nursing homes and other companies run by his private equity firm, but it remains to be seen whether that notion sticks. On the other hand, I’ve heard several Republicans say they still don’t feel like they know or trust Rauner or believe he understands and can run a government.

Rauner has momentum, money and plenty of messaging. He’s got the upper hand on term limits and will use the transportation department hiring report, Quinn’s income tax increase and the anti-violence program spending questions to his full advantage in the sprint to November.

Quinn will continue to try to morph Rauner into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The strategy for Quinn is to fuel fear. Quinn has labor solidly in his corner, despite his push for pension reforms, because labor fears Rauner will try to stop pensions and maybe even unions altogether.

Republicans have been out of power and out of the governor’s mansion now for a decade. Do they feel fear and the threat of loss? Probably not so keenly.

Democrats, though, and union managers have plenty to lose. And plenty to fear. Fear of losing something as tangible as jobs and pay are powerful motivators. Powerful enough to help Quinn and his backers scramble over the rocks in the road ahead? We’re about to find out.

NEXT ARTICLE: What do Quinn and Rauner each need to do to win the governor’s race?

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