You’ve got to give Governor Bruce Rauner this: some parts of his job are complicated. Like negotiating a budget in a political war zone.
Or, if he wanted to have a go at it on his own, Rauner could have selected any regular faculty member at any of Illinois’s colleges and universities. Thousands of them would have qualified.
So, last October, the council sent Rauner two possible candidates—both experienced members of the FAC—and waited for a response. Winter came and went, but “we never heard anything,” Donovan says. Then, on April 15, they were surprised by an e-mail announcing that an appointment had been made. Rauner had selected John Bambenek, a cybersecurity consultant and former Republican candidate for the state senate, who teaches one computer course a year on the University of Illinois’s Urbana-Champaign campus.
Bambenek, reached by phone last week, says he’s not going to address those complaints, most of which are “misrepresentations” of things he wrote “over a decade ago for the college paper.” As for the claim that he’s opposed to free speech, he offers this: “I ran as a Rand Paul delegate in the primary.” Make of that what you will.
The appointment awaits senate confirmation. And the state awaits a budget. v
