North Cook News

Sam McCann, Conservative Party candidate for governor, has leveraged whatever political base he has to stab fellow conservative state Rep. Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) in the back, as part of a bid by the public sector unions to oust any opposition in Springfield, conservative leaders say.

“He will go down in flames for his betrayal,” state Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) told North Cook News.

McCann, now serving as a Republican state senator from Plainview, was behind mailers into Morrison’s district depicting Gov. Bruce Rauner riding a rhino, with Morrison trailing, riding a smaller rhino. The caption read: “Don’t be a Rauner RINO [Republican in Name Only] Like Tom Morrison.”

Tom Morrison

The mailers have “finally exposed him [McCann] for what he has been all along," Ives said. "He’s doing the bidding of the unions and Madigan [Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan].”

The Illinois Family Institute (IF) immediately rescinded its McCann endorsement over the mailers.

“Putting Tom Morrison in the same camp with Rauner is laughable,” said IFI Executive Director David Smith. “Morrison has proven himself to be not only a man of unimpeachable integrity but also a Republican who stands unashamedly and boldly for the entire Republican platform, including the social issues.”

Smith said that Morrison voted against key anti-family bills that Rauner signed, including HB 40, which authorized public funding of abortions in Illinois. And in what Smith described as acts of “tyranny,” Rauner also signed SB 1564, which forces pro-life health care professionals to promote abortion, and HB 217, which makes it illegal to counsel minors on how to cope with or overcome unwanted same-sex attraction. Morrison opposed both bills.

Ives characterized Morrison as an “up-and-down-the line conservative” aligned with other conservatives “utterly disgusted” with Rauner for signing HB 40 and the other bills cited by Smith. 

She expects that McCann next will target state Reps. Peter Breen (R-Lombard) and Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield); both, like Morrison, have fought against union overreach in Springfield.

Ives predicts that McCann would end up working in a J.B. Pritzker administration, as a reward for turning on Morrison. (Pritzker, a Democrat, is well ahead of Rauner in the polls.)

“He’ll get a six-figure job and boost his pension,” she said. “Wake up, Illinois.”