The first candidate to formally announce he’s running for governor of Illinois has vowed to live in the Executive Mansion in Springfield. The refusal of recent governors to move to Springfield has become a sore spot with permanent residents of Illinois’ capital city.
Republican state Treasurer Dan Rutherford is making his long-anticipated campaign for governor official on a three-day tour of Illinois that began Sunday in — wait for it — Chicago.
The Executive Mansion in Springfield became an issue a decade ago, when then-governor Rod Blagojevich decided he and his family would be staying in their Chicago home.
During the 2010 campaign, Gov. Pat Quinn said he was different.
“I live there. I think it’s very clear that I live there,” Quinn said. “I have plenty of clothes there, even my underwear there — that’s important.”
But the reality is, based on his public schedules, Quinn spends the majority of his time in and around Chicago. Rutherford says he would be different.
“I will live in the governor’s mansion in Springfield,” Rutherford says.
Nevertheless, Rutherford says he would not sell his private residence, in the central Illinois town of Chenoa.
“Yes, I’ve got a home in Chenoa,” he says, “and I happen to have clothes that I have there, too.”
