|
 Before Tuesday's deadline at the State Board of Elections, Gov. Pat
Quinn and his Republican challenger, state Sen. Bill Brady of
Bloomington, both released reports detailing the money they raised
through the end of June.
Both candidates say they raised millions of dollars, and both say
those totals say something about their campaigns.
But compared with other recent campaigns for governor, the reports
from Brady and Quinn might not say what they think.
The report from Brady's campaign says that the Bloomington
Republican raised $3.6 million since January. Brady's camp had $2.3
million of that in the bank as of June 30.
Quinn's numbers show the governor's campaign raised $5.1 million
since the first of the year and had an identical $2.3 million in the
bank at the end of last month.
University of Illinois at Springfield political science professor
Kent Redfield said both candidates appear to have passed the first
test.
"You need a certain amount of money in Illinois to really be visible
and get your message out there. This is a very expensive state to
run statewide," he said.
But a comparison with other statewide races shows the two running in
2010 are behind the pack.
Back in 2006 Republican Judy Baar Topinka and then-Gov. Rod
Blagojevich ended June with similar amounts of campaign cash on
hand. Topinka reported $1.5 million while Blagojevich logged $2.2
million. But also by June of that year Blagojevich had outspent
Topinka by more than three-to-one after dropping $9.8 million during
the first six months of that year.
The last time candidates for governor raised similar amounts was
back in 1994. Democratic challenger Dawn Clark Netsch raised $3
million in the first half of the year, while incumbent Republican
Jim Edgar raised $3.2 million.
In 1998, George Ryan crossed the halfway mark with $4.8 million in
the bank. Democrat Glenn Poshard had just $511,279.
In 2002, Republican Jim Ryan reported $689,809 in the bank in June. Democrat Rod Blagojevich had $3.8 million.
[to top of second column] |
Redfield said that without an incumbent in the governor's mansion,
there is no huge war chest -- Quinn was sworn in as governor in
January 2009 after lawmakers impeached and ousted Gov. Rod
Blagojevich. Redfield said that only helps Brady.
"It's going to be more competitive, but it's probably more
encouraging for the Republicans in general and Brady in particular."
The professor said there are some hints of good news for the
governor from his midyear report.
"If Quinn were an incumbent governor who'd been in office for four
years, those would be very disappointing numbers. Now he's not the
incumbent and he's not been using the office for four years to
leverage campaign contributions." Redfield said the Blagojevich trial is highlighting how that was
done in the state.
But from now through Election Day, Redfield said it's not just about
how much money has been raised, but how much and how well the money
is spent.
Redfield said that will be a challenge for Brady as he tries to
crack the Chicagoland area.
"He's got to spend money on introductory ads and "get to know me"
sorts of things that Gov. Quinn probably doesn't. On the other hand,
most of the publicity that Gov. Quinn has gotten certainly in the
past six months has been negative."
Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for governor, raised just
$29,000 between January and the end of June.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]
|
