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Rauner Chooses Topinka Successor

Munger '14 Campaign website

Illinois Governor-elect Bruce Rauner is choosing a relative newcomer to state politics to be the next comptroller.

Residents of Illinois' 59th House district are probably familiar with the name Leslie Munger: their mailboxes, no doubt, were flooded all fall with campaign brochures featuring her name.

Her failed -- but tight -- race against incumbent Democratic state Rep. Carol Sente of Carol Stream was considered one of the slimiest of the season.

Despite that loss, Munger will be coming to Springfield.

Gov.-elect Rauner said next week he will appoint his fellow Republican to be Comptroller.

The office was left vacant following Judy Baar Topinka's sudden death last month; leaving current Gov. Pat Quinn to appoint his budget director, Jerry Stermer, to temporarily fill the post. But Topinka was set to begin a new, four year term next week, leaving it to Rauner to pick someone for the job long-term.

Just how long remains a question. Legislators will be back in Springfield on Thursday to debate creating a special election for comptroller in 2016.

Munger, of Lincolnshire, was previously director of Helene Curtis/Unilever's Hair Care business, and she was a brand manager at Procter & Gamble. Her resume said she has an M.B.A. from Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Business and a B.S. from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

Like Rauner -- who often brags about his lack of experience in state government -- Munger said on her 2014 campaign website that "I am a Springfield outsider; not a career politician."