I wasn't hugely surprised when Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers earlier this month contributed $30,000 to Chad Grimm, the Illinois Libertarian Party's candidate for governor.
After all, the union's president, James M. Sweeney, was out in front of the push to beat Bruce Rauner during the Republican primary. After a stormy meeting with Rauner, who is running on a pledge to allow local areas to opt-in to "right to work" laws, Sweeney demanded that organized labor stop the candidate in his tracks. (The law would give workers the right to not join the unions that negotiated their pay, benefits and working conditions.)
Sweeney's union contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to state Senator Kirk Dillard's primary campaign, and kicked in even more to the Fund for Progress & Jobs PAC, which was the vehicle some unions used to inform Republicans that Rauner was a "closet Democrat."
