* Rebecca told me about this last month, but asked that I keep it a secret. Her departure from the administration is no surprise, considering the stresses of her daily gig, and the length of her tenure…
“I have accepted a public affairs position with a public relations firm in St. Louis,” said Rebecca Rausch, the governor’s Springfield-based deputy director of communications.
Rausch said her last day at her current job is May 31 — the deadline by which a normal session of the General Assembly would end.
While the new job, which she’s waiting to announce on that company’s timetable, pays more than the $80,000 annually she’s making at the state, Rausch said her leaving is bittersweet.
“I like this job,” she said. “I like the governor. I like working for him. I like the people I work with, specifically Abby (Ottenhoff, the director of communications) and (Deputy Gov.) Sheila Nix.
* Eighty grand may sound like a lot to some, but she was never paid as much as some other press staffers, despite the fact that she had to live in the very center of Anti-Blagojevich Country. Rausch was a former local TV reporter, so everybody in town knows who she is. I can’t imagine what that must have been like.
I respect what I cannot do, so I respect all the Spin Sisters for their on-message tenacity. They can’t have an “off” day because it would be disastrous for their boss. So, just imagine the pressure.
Rausch and I had our differences over the years - to say the least - but let’s give her a classy sendoff today. One of her more arduous assignments has been to keep track of what’s posted on this blog, so try to keep that in mind when you comment.
…Adding… I’ve had to delete a few comments already. If you want to express your anger in a stupid drive-by comment, go to the SJ-R. They publish almost anything. Otherwise, I’m gonna delete you. Resistance is futile, and if after I leave the office and discover later that you’ve slipped through somehow, I’m gonna ban you.