Pritzker Continues Spending Blitz in Governor’s Race, AG Race Heats Up

As Illinois’ many 2018 races for the state’s top offices are reaching a boil, candidates are continuing to raise and spend mind-boggling amounts of money in their pursuit of victory. Chicago Alderman and Gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar dropped out of the race for Governor last week, citing a lack of funds. Spending reports from gubernatorial candidates in the third quarter, topping $15 million, certainly drive that point home.

The state’s other top race, with at least eight candidates vying to become the state’s next Attorney General, is just starting to hit a competitive pace. Read below for information on contributions, expenditures, and trends by candidates in both of these important Illinois races.

Contributions
Gubernatorial candidates have filed their final fundraising and spending numbers for the third quarter, and the race remains on track to be one of the most expensive in the state and nation. Total contributions to all candidates were nearly four times as high last quarter as this time period in the 2014 gubernatorial race. Total expenditures were also up by 741% compared to this time period in 2014.

In the third quarter, gubernatorial candidates collectively raised $9.6 million and spent $15.6 million. The top three fundraisers were JB Pritzker with $7 million, Chris Kennedy with $1 million, and Daniel Biss with $837,000. Top spenders were JB Pritzker with $11.1 million, Bruce Rauner with $2.6 million, and Chris Kennedy with $664,864. In just the third quarter, JB Pritzker spent 17 times more money than any other Democratic candidate for governor. At the end of the quarter, all gubernatorial candidates controlled a combined $70 million in their campaign committees.

Self-funding also continued to be a common revenue source in this race. JB Pritzker, Chris Kennedy, and Bob Daiber all served as their own largest donors this quarter. JB Pritzker, who vowed to self-fund the entirety of his campaign, donated another $7 million dollars from his personal wealth to his committee. Kennedy’s self-funding contribution of $250,000 accounted for 24% of his campaign’s total receipts this quarter.

While wealthy donors certainly drove the quarter’s revenue, individual contributions of $1,000 or less still made up a significant proportion of the total amount raised by a number of candidates. By percentage, Governor Rauner lead the way, with 75% ($305,000) of his total amount raised ($405,000) coming from small contributions like these. Biss raised $296,000 from small individual contributions, which accounted for 35% of the total amount he raised. Kennedy raised 22% of his total contributions from donations of this size.

Bruce Rauner and Daniel Biss also received substantial funds from transfers out of other committees. Rauner filed $46,510 in contributions from political committees, most notably $40,000 from Contractors for Free Enterprise, a committee run by Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. This organization is a construction industry trade association that advocates the merit shop philosophy, a non-union management structure. Biss reported $45,940 in transfers from other committees. Most of these transfers came from Biss’s colleagues and friends in the Illinois General Assembly.

Expenditures
Ad buys remained the single largest expenditure area for the field of gubernatorial candidates, although total spending in the area declined since last quarter. The majority of JB Pritzker’s expenditures, $5.9 million, went to producing and airing ads across Illinois. Bruce Rauner and Daniel Biss also spent approximately $229,000 and $69,000 on ads, respectively. Rauner also spent $164,000 on mailers. All told, $6.2 million was spent in advertising in the third quarter, a 17% decrease from the $7.5 million reportedly spent on ads last quarter.

Research and consulting services represented the next largest spending areas for the candidates at $2.94 million. Pritzker and Rauner devoted the most resources to various media and political consulting firms, with Kennedy and Biss trailing significantly. Pritzker spent $1.66 million on consulting, Rauner spent $1.61 million, and Kennedy and Biss spent around $87,000 each.

While Pritzker and Rauner, the two self-funders with deep pockets, focused their spending on expensive areas like ads and consulting, Biss and Kennedy mainly used the funds they raised on hiring staff. Kennedy spent over half of his total expenditures on salaries, and related expenses like payroll taxes and health insurance, dishing out $395,300 for his staffers. 

Biss only spent $205,200 on paying staff, while Governor Rauner, with a communications staff in his office and no primary opponent, spent the least, only devoting $162,600 to payroll and related expenses. Pritzker outspent Rauner, Biss, and Kennedy combined, paying $1.58 million on personnel for his campaign. All told, payroll costs totaled $2.35 million, more than doubling since last quarter.