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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.
Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and
other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of
award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning
Newsfeed out of Springfield.
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