BRUCE RAUNER CONFIRMS MEMBERSHIP IN A $140,000 WINE CLUB: ELITIST, POMPOUS POPINJAY, OR SHREWD BUSINESSMAN?

9/3/14

Yesterday, GOP candidate for Illinois governor Bruce Rauner confirmed that he belongs to the Napa Valley Reserve (“NVR”) wine club.  NVR is a rather exclusive club; it reportedly costs $140,000 to join.   Mr. Rauner’s membership in NVR was hinted at in an article in last Sunday’s (i.e., 8/31/14’s) Chicago Tribune’s front page headline article entitled “Emanuel and Rauner.”  Yours truly found that article especially interesting, coming in the wake of my 8/18/14 post, PAT QUINN TO BLACK VOTERS:   BRUCE RAUNER = RAHM EMANUEL?, in which I argued that it might be a good idea for Pat Quinn (no relation) to try to convince black voters that a vote for Bruce Rauner is a vote for Rahm Emanuel.   One wonders how many people at the Tribune read my posts and/or are (not so) secretly working for Pat Quinn.  But I digress.

The immediate knee-jerk reaction to Mr. Rauner’s belonging to a “wine club” that cost $140,000 to join is to argue that it confirms Mr. Rauner’s elitism and consequent unfitness to be this state’s governor.   The Pat Quinn (no relation) camp has, to absolutely no one’s surprise, taken up this narrative with near childlike vigor.

The second, more thoughtful reaction would be to question Mr. Rauner’s judgment.  It is, of course, his money and he can do what he wants with it, but what sort of narcissistic, compensating popinjay feels the need to pay $140,000 to join a wine club?

While the second aforementioned reaction is more sound than the first, and might very well be the correct reaction, there is a good possibility there is more to Mr. Rauner’s belonging to NVR than an odd, but not uncommon, combination of ego and insecurity run amok.

Mr. Rauner is reportedly a partner with Bill Harlan, who runs NVR, in a venture called Promontory Vineyards, which owns 480 acres of real estate in the Napa Valley.   At current prices, that property is worth something in the $130mm-$150mm range.   That’s a lot of money even by Bruce Rauner’s standards.   Further, given the current enthusiasm of the bleating sheep who sadly constitute America’s new elite for outrageously priced wine, Promontory may turn out to be a very lucrative investment for Messrs. Rauner, Harlan, and their partners.  Perhaps the $140,000 membership in NVR was a means for Mr. Rauner to curry the favor of Mr. Harlan and thus get in on the Promontory deal.  If this was indeed the motivation behind Mr. Rauner’s joining NVR, that $140,000 could turn out to have been a relatively trivial, and very shrewd, investment.

Or maybe Bruce Rauner’s just an egomaniac who wants to brag to his friends that he belongs to a club that charges $140,000 for access to snooty wine that is often barely distinguishable from the swill yours truly used to buy in the generic aisle at Jewel in the early ‘80s.  One never knows.  But don’t discount the possibility that the seemingly foolish NVR membership was a small cog in a larger plan.  That’s the way business is done.   Pat Quinn (no relation), of course, would know nothing of such matters since he has spent his life suckling on the public mammary gland rather than actually conducting business.  But I digress…again.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics.