(The Center Square) – Millions of dollars have been flowing into Illinois politics this month.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has given himself $125 million this year alone. That dwarfs his Republican opponent Darren Bailey’s campaign funds.
During the Illinois State Fair, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy lamented the departure of Ken Griffin, the billionaire owner of Citadel.
“It’s a real loss for Illinois and for the Republican Party for Ken Griffin … to move from Illinois to Florida, certainly,” Tracy said. “He has been a big, charitable donor and he helped us defeat the progressive tax so we’re going to miss him.”
Griffin helped fund campaigns against Pritzker’s progressive income tax amendment in 2020. Griffin recently gave failed GOP gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin $50 million before the June primary.
“But we’re not a one-person party. We have lots of different donors,” Tracy said. “It’s going to be hard to replace his donations. But if you rely too much on one donor then when that donor leaves for whatever reason, whether it’s [Gov. Bruce Rauner] or Ken Griffin, your donations atrophy so you have to rebuild that. I have been rebuilding that and we are becoming the party of the people and so we’re relying on the people to replace mega donors.”
Republicans still have mega donor Richard Uihlein. He gave Bailey $1 million this week after giving Bailey $3 million before the June primary. Uihlein and his wife are founders of Uline Corporation.
Uihlein has primarily given to People Who Play By The Rules PAC to the tune of $20 million.
Bailey’s fund isn’t the only one that got a million dollar donation this month. So far in August, Vote Yes for Workers Rights, which supports the labor amendment in front of voters this November, received $3.2 million from various labor unions.
