^ You're living in fantasy-land now. Didn't you once claim to be wise to the political landscape? I'd suggest a re-reading of it now. If Rauner's 'strategy' is as you present, that would clearly be both dumb and reckless. As much as I do not care for Madigan, and quite frankly have come to even to loathe him at times - or more frequently than that, Rauner is deeply, deeply unpopular - he really gives Rahm a run for his money and may even be more unpopular than the mayor. He just does not have any sort of upper-hand. If you think he does, or he has some secret, er, trump card up his sleeve, you're kidding yourself, and you're as much trapped in the modern GOP orthodoxy/free market fundamentalist 'bubble' as TUP apparently is these days........I'd urge you to find a way out before it completely cuts off the oxygen to your brain......once that happens, the effects on your worldview are completely irreversible.....
The most high-profile of the proxy battle races was Dunkin v Stratton, and Stratton (Madigan's candidate) absolutely whooped incumben Dunkin.......there was also actually Gonzales (reportedly and quite believably a Rauner/GOP operative 'plant', and someone with an Hispanic name, in a district that is heavily and increasingly Latino) getting crushed by Madigan himself (not that Madigan was not expected to be re-elected by any means - that is not what I am putting forth, but the margin, in his Latino district, against someone that he was not actually able to have struck from the ballot - that sure must be a first! - was overwhelming and it surprised for sure on the upside)......think there were one or two others at least, as well.....
And finally, for the record, this is a quite accurate visual interpretation of what went down in Illinois on Tuesday:
https://twitter.com/sstantis/status/...rc=twsrc%5Etfw