Email: Top Rauner Aide Suggested Blaming Duckworth For Legionnaires' Deaths
The day after WBEZ first reported on the stories of grieving families with loved ones who died from Legionnaires disease at the Quincy veterans home, a top aide in Republican Gov. Bruce Rauners office had an idea: Could they tie the outbreaks to the previous administration?
Newly released state records show reaction to the story immediately permeated the governors office.
Shortly after WBEZ published the original investigation on Dec. 12 of last year, one Democratic state lawmaker called for an audit examining the fatal Legionnaires outbreaks at the facility. The governors deputy chief of staff, Darlene Senger, floated a novel if highly politicized idea to shift blame for the deaths of the elderly Illinois Veterans Home residents.
We can maybe tie this back to Duckworth, Senger wrote in an email obtained through an open-records request. Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq War veteran, ran the state agency that oversees the Quincy home under former Governors Pat Quinn and Rod Blagojevich.
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/top-rauner-aide-suggested-blaming-duckworth-for-legionnaires-deaths/eaf888ea-b04c-447d-b5c2-6fcaebdced88
Just Lovely!