Bruce Rauner:  The guy running a ton of commercials on TV in his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor has ginned up a lot of support.

That’s despite the fact his campaign manager Ron Gidwitz gave $5,000 to an anti gun group in Chicago.  Really.  Read all about it.

Here’s his version of the “Kerry for President” crass pandering shot seeking gun owner support:

Remember this picture?

Rauner’s also been nicknamed Baron von Carhartt for wearing a Carhartt jackets in his ads, to make him look like he’s an everyday Illinoisan.

Nothing, it seems, could be further from the truth.

Ask him about the billion dollar judgement against his company…

Here’s some details:

A jury in Polk County, Florida, returned a $1.1 billion verdict last month in a case involving what was described as “corporate corruption” and “misconduct” that ultimately led to the death of a nursing home resident. The jury agreed that defendant, Trans Health Care, Inc. (THI) [Editor:  Rauner’s company], deserved to be punished for such severe corporate greed that it caused Ms. Arlene Townsend to suffer for years in a nursing home that was short-staffed and under-supplied. The jury awarded $110 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages.

The Plaintiff’s lawyers presented evidence showing how Ms. Townsend was the victim of a scheme by an enterprise that included: New York real estate investors; financiers General Electric Capital Corporation (GECC) (a private bank) and Ventas, Inc. (a real estate investment firm); and multi-billion dollar Chicago private equity fund GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC. According to trial testimony, this group conspired to run a nursing home chain into insolvency without regard to the harm the nursing home residents would experience. Ms. Townsend was said to have been one of the victims of the Auburndale facility THI managed and operated.

From another story on the case:

“The case went beyond the nursing home’s extreme negligence that resulted in Townsend’s death and revealed its investors had conspired to run the nursing home chain into insolvency without any regard to residents’ care. Evidence showed the investors — that included . . . multi-billion dollar Chicago private equity fund GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC – set out to build their empire through a series of mergers and acquisitions with the ultimate goal of taking the company public, cashing out and making a lot of money. Not one person on the Board of Directors was a health care official which resulted [in] poor care for residents at some of their locations.”

Nice job, Bruce.

Mrs. Townsend wasn’t the only victim.  No, not by a long shot.

Read the whole story here, as posted at Republican News Watch.  It’s ugly.  And it’s gonna be talked about for the next few days, at least.

Rauner’s GTCR linked to nursing home deaths and abuse

By DOUG IBENDAHL • January 22, 2014

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner pledges to run Illinois government “like a business.” In light of some disturbing facts which have come to light through multiple lawsuits involving Rauner’s former private equity firm, voters had better do their homework into what exactly the catchphrase “like a business” means to Mr. Rauner.

The nursing home industry came under serious stress in the wake of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. The law significantly changed Medicare’s reimbursement system. Where before Medicare had reimbursed nursing homes for their costs plus a profit, now there were strict limitations on reimbursements and new regulations on how long patients could stay in nursing homes for certain conditions.

In 2000 The Wall Street Journal said: “The vultures are circling the carnage in the nursing-home industry. With some of the largest nursing-home operators under bankruptcy protection and others heading in that direction, a number of deep-pocketed investors are preparing to swoop in on the choice morsels.”

Bruce Rauner’s Chicago-based investment firm GTCR, LLC (formerly known as GTCR Golder Rauner) decided to get in on the action and one vehicle it used was Trans Healthcare Inc. (“THI”). THI’s launch to acquire nursing homes appealed to GTCR “because a new prospective payment system for Medicare was just being implemented,” said Ned Jannotta Jr., then a GTCR principal.

The end of the story sums it up nicely:

Republicans don’t have a problem with someone making money. But most Republicans do care how it’s made.