Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) used Republican challenger Bruce Rauner’s proposal to lower the state minimum wage to compare the GOP candidate to Montgomery Burns, the evil wealthy nuclear power plant owner in the cartoon The Simpsons.
In a fundraising email sent out by Quinn’s reelection campaign on Thursday, Quinn said Rauner, a private equity executive, and the rest of the GOP gubernatorial primary field “have all the compassion of C. Montgomery Burns.”
“Putting more money into the pockets of those who are living paycheck to paycheck is not only the right and decent thing to do, it’s good for the economy,” Quinn said. “Everyday people don’t admire the extra money they earn in the bank – they spend it in the local community, creating more jobs.”
Quinn’s fundraising email came a day after news broke that Rauner, on a local radio show, argued that Illinois’s minimum wage should be lowered from $8.25 an hour to $7.25. That comment was met with negative pushback and Rauner quickly apologized saying he’s actually for tying the state’s minimum wage to the national minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 an hour.
President Barack Obama and national Democrats have proposed raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and Quinn wants to raise Illinois’s minimum wage to $10 an hour. The other three candidates in the GOP primary do not support raising the minimum wage but have not said it should be lowered either.
“As long as I’m governor, I will never stop fighting until we raise the minimum wage in Illinois,” Quinn continued in the email.
