SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – It’s becoming clearer by the day why various Illinois teachers unions have endorsed state Sen. Kirk Dillard in the March 18 Republican gubernatorial primary.

It’s not that the unions have a sudden interest in becoming involved in the Republican Party, or electing any Republicans to office.

They just want to limit the choice voters will have in the November general election.

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That became apparent with several recent statements from union officials, urging members who typically vote Democratic to cross over in the primary and vote for Dillard.

Their goal is to keep conservative, anti-union candidate Bruce Rauner from winning the GOP primary. If that happens, and Dillard is the winner, voters will be able to choose between the pro-union Dillard and the pro-union Gov. Pat Quinn in November.

You can bet that the unions will switch back over and support Quinn in the general election, despite their anger over his approval of recent state employee pension reform legislation. But they also realize that Quinn isn’t very popular, and could very well lose the general election.

If that happens, at least they would have a RINO governor (Republican in name only) in Dillard. That’s certainly better, from a union perspective, than having a real Republican like Rauner in office.

“The candidacy of Bruce Rauner puts things in a different perspective,” Charles Barron, a spokesman for the Illinois Education Association, was quoted as saying by WTTW. “It’s very important the candidates for governor believe in public education and collective bargaining rights.”

Very important for whom? Average voters? Hardly.

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This type of political gamesmanship is legal, but rather sickening. Since Quinn is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, the unions feel free to interfere in the Republican primary.

If thousands of union Democrats do cross over and manage to score a victory for Dillard, that will mean that the majority of Republican voters were probably denied the opportunity to choose their own party’s nominee.

But recent events are telling us this sinister strategy will not work.

Illinois Freedom PACT, a group founded by the Democratic Governors Association, has announced that it is cancelling its anti-Rauner television ad campaign just a week before the primary election.

“It set off speculation that the group, overwhelmingly supported by labor unions, had conceded that Rauner was too far ahead for any of his challenges to catch up,” WTTW reported.

If that’s true, voters will really have a clear choice between two candidates with different philosophies of government. As the late Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater put it, Rauner will offer the people of Illinois “a choice, not an echo.”