* AP…

Rauner says he’s “focused on Illinois” and is trying “to minimize the distractions” and his time out of state. Rauner is amid a state budget impasse with Democratic lawmakers. Trump is to take the oath of office Jan. 20, just five days before Rauner is scheduled to give the State of the State speech in Springfield.

Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says he won’t be in Washington later this month for GOP President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

* Greg Hinz…

Rauner did not back Trump for president in the primaries and can claim limited personal and political connections to the new president. He did lend his name to a big Chicago fundraiser that Vice President-elect Mike Pence starred in just before New Year’s, but was on a family vacation and did not attend.

One Rauner insider says you shouldn’t read too much into the inaugural no-show. “There’s no bad blood,” that source says.

But another just chuckled when I asked whether Rauner’s focus isn’t just on passing his budget but in getting himself re-elected in 2018, a task that likely would not be furthered in Democratic-dominated Illinois by the perception that Rauner and Trump are thisclose.

Keep an eye on Trump’s tweets to see if he has any thoughts.