Rauner Picks Wheaton Councilwoman Sanguinetti as Running Mate

As Illinois moves into a new gubernatorial election system where candidates run on the same ticket as a running mate for lieutenant governor, Republican candidate Bruce Rauner announced Friday that he would be running with Wheaton city councilwoman Evelyn Sanguinetti, ABC7 reports.

According to the station, Sanguinetti, 42, an attorney and former assistant attorney general, notably small of stature and battling multiple sclerosis, is a surprise pick and little known on the state scene, but brings minority credentials as the daughter of an Ecuadorean immigrant and a Cuban refugee.

"I'm sure a 4-foot-11 Latina with an Italian last name and three small children is certainly not what the career politicians out in Springfield expected," the Associated Press quoted Sanguinetti saying. "My journey has not been the usual journey. It certainly hasn't been typical, but I can tell you this: It's been very American." 

"She's lived the American Dream. She embodies everything that is wonderful about our great state and our great nation," ABC7 quoted Rauner saying.

Sanguinetti, a Wheaton resident since 2002, won a spot on the City council in 2011.  According to the Chicago Tribune, she has yet to cite any specific job duties she would like to tackle, only saying she would “work ‘full time’ in the office communicating Rauner’s message.”

The Chicago Sun-Times notes that with this pick, all four Republican gubernatorial candidates—all white men—have selected either a woman, a minority or both, and suggests it is due to an “image problem” for the GOP among females and non-whites.

Find Patch's 2010 interview with Sanguinetti here.

Read more at the ABC7, Daily Herald, Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune websites.