I'm going to talk about one of the weirdest things that happened this campaign season.

Earlier this year, ultra-conservative activist Jack Roeser told me that his friend Bruce Rauner believed life began at conception. "I'd describe him as a guy who is a morally right-to-life guy, but not on the hustings," said Roeser, who has since passed away, about GOP gubernatorial nominee Rauner.

Roeser and many of his right-to-life allies backed Rauner every step of the way, while Rauner, who belatedly admitted that he's pro-choice, spent much of the Republican primary campaign fighting for term limits and pledging battles with the Springfield Democrats and their teacher-union allies.

The candidate has often said that he has "no social agenda" and would focus solely on cleaning up government and getting the economy running again. But in addition to those factors, he also wanted to avoid stressing the issue for fear of alienating a relatively small but still important base of Republican voters who just won't vote for a pro-choicer of any party. Every vote counts, especially if you're a Republican running in Democratic Illinois.

But the issue exploded during the campaign's final week. Local 150 of the Operating Engineers Union - one of Governor Pat Quinn's strongest supporters - spent big bucks supporting the unabashedly pro-life, pro-gun Libertarian Party candidate for governor, Chad Grimm. The idea was to siphon votes away from Rauner.

The Republican Party of Illinois pushed back, sending mailers and doing thousands of robo-calls warning Republicans that Quinn and his allies were trying to "steal" the election by pushing the Libertarian, and claiming that Grimm was for gay marriage and belonged to a party that is officially pro-choice.

Those messages almost certainly come from Rauner, who has contributed about 80 percent of every dollar the party has raised. He installed a loyal ally as party chair. The state party hasn't done much without first checking in with the candidate.

Meanwhile, the pro-choice group Personal PAC launched a TV attack ad on Rauner in Chicago. The ad urged viewers to vote for the statewide advisory referendum asking whether insurance plans with prescription-drug coverage should be required to cover birth control. The ad claimed Rauner had given millions to "right-wing groups and politicians who oppose birth-control coverage."

Rauner himself had earlier aired a TV ad only in the Chicago area touting his "pro-choice" views. The Personal PAC ad was designed to counter Rauner's message.

Not long after, the Illinois Republican Party countered the Personal PAC ad with a Chicago TV ad claiming that the pro-choice Rauner was for employer-funded birth control.

Talk about your mixed messages on all sides.

You have your Quinn-backing unions pushing an anti-union Libertarian because he's pro-life and pro-gun, while giving even more money to Quinn, who is pro-choice and a major proponent of gun control.

You have your Republican candidate claiming he's pro-choice, and the state GOP saying he's for employer-funded birth control while spending big bucks (mostly Rauner's) to warn rank-and-file Republicans against voting for a pro-gay-marriage candidate from a pro-choice party.

The Democrats have been planning this all along. Folks at the very top of the Quinn campaign told me last summer they were going to make trouble for Rauner with Downstate conservatives by pushing him as far to the left as they could in Chicago.

Their close allies helped keep the pro-life, pro-gun Libertarian on the ballot when the Republicans tried to kick him off, and then they funded his campaign to peel votes away from Rauner.

In other words, the Quinn campaign was behind what spies call a "false-flag operation." And Bruce Rauner funded two diametrically opposed advertising messages about abortion at the same time in an attempt to save his political neck.

As I write this, I don't know who will win the election. But I sure know who lost. You.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax (a daily political newsletter) and CapitolFax.com.

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