With the second quarter recently ending, we now have fundraising totals for next year’s gubernatorial contest in Illinois. The race is quickly shaping up to be the costliest gubernatorial contest in history thanks to two billionaires, Democrat J.B. Pritzker and GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner, being willing to write themselves eight-figure checks. First off, the quarter’s totals for the Democrats:
J.B. Pritzker (D): $14 million self-funded, $4.9 million cash-on-hand
Daniel Biss (D): $1 million raised, $2.3 million cash-on-hand
Chris Kennedy (D): $704,000 raised, $959,000 cash-on-hand
Ameya Pawar (D): $139,000 raised, $229,000 cash-on-hand
Scott Drury (D): $66,000 raised, $347,000 cash-on-hand (in one month)
Bob Daiber (D): $4,000 raised, $10,000 self-loaned, $10,000 cash-on-hand
Wealthy investor Pritzker dominated the money race by self-funding $14 million even as he accepted no donations. Kennedy-family scion Chris Kennedy is also quite wealthy by any objective standards, but he simply doesn’t have means to match Pritzker’s self-funding. While he gave his campaign an initial $250,000 at the start of the year, he didn’t do any substantial self-funding this quarter and somewhat surprisingly ended up raising less money than North Shore-area state Sen. Daniel Biss despite starting off with much higher name recognition. Additionally, Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar, state Rep. Scott Drury, and Madison County schools official Bob Daiber all raised relatively insignificant sums for such an expensive state.
While the Democrats have to first get passed a crowded primary, Rauner will have built up a fully operational Death Star by the time the general election arrives. He raked in $20.6 million during the second quarter and finished June with $67.6 million cash-on-hand, almost certainly the most of any candidate for any office in the country. A whopping $20 million of Rauner’s haul, or all but $600,000, came from just a single source: hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who is a mega-donor to GOP campaigns. That comes on top of an earlier $50 million Rauner gave himselflast December, which he had intimated was just an opening salvo.
Pritzker already spent a staggering $9.3 million in the second quarter, while Rauner also spent a sizable $3.4 million even though he faces no major GOP primary opponent. Politico recently reported that some unnamed party officials think a contest between the two men could top a record-shattering $300 million, and at $90 million, they’re already almost one-third of the way there, even though there are still another 16 months until the general election.