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In two days, Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner plowed another $3 million of his personal fortune into his candidacy for governor, bringing the venture capitalist’s total investment in his own campaign to more than $23 million.
So far in October, Rauner has steadily added $1.5 million every week, and now it appears to be ramping up. He’s put $9 million into his own campaign since Oct. 3, state finance records show.
That’s ever closer to onetime U.S. Senate candidate Blair Hull who spent a record $26 million on his failed candidacy. Hull, however, spent all of that money in the primary alone.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Kent Redfield crunched the numbers for the governor’s race to date. Click here to see his full report, as of 11 this morning.
But the most relevant piece is this…
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:27 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: Rauner pushing IDOT back into the news stream
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What is the current $ count for Quinn?
Comment by admin Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:30 am
I think this is what the PQ folks have been afraid of all along. They just cannot compete with that much infusion of cash in the last leg of the race. It could very well be a game changer.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:30 am
Governor Quinn expressed outrage as he cashed his $625,000 SEIU check.
Comment by so... Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:32 am
At this point with every new dollar spent rauner is only annoying undecideds into voting for Quinn.
Comment by William j Kelly Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:35 am
Expected this last minute surge by Rauner campaign. Now, is the time to bury Quinn.
Comment by Apocalypse Now Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:36 am
Of course both candidates have raised money from other sources, as all candidates must. The real danger here is that no one would know Rauner’s name, but for his vast wealth.
Comment by unspun Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:36 am
Would have made a big difference in the summer. Now you’re at the point of diminishing returns.
Like he said, he’s a salesman, not an analyst.
Comment by Wordslinger Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:38 am
- Thoughts? -
Main thought: After a certain point, additional paid media has extremely diminishing to negative returns.
So, go ahead with 3,000 GRP, Bruce, I think that’s a great use of your money.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:40 am
Mr. Rauner is very desperate.
Comment by North Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:44 am
Agree with wordslinger. Media is past saturation point. BUT, if the cash were directed to a focused, strategic ground game?
Comment by dixiechick Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:45 am
He smells the finish line. This tells me also that they plan on having a lot of bodies on Election Day working.
Also if William Kelly thinks it’s bad move , it must be a winning formula.
Comment by Leprechaun Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:45 am
A little out of pattern and late.
I wonder if it’s specifically for GOTV activities.
Comment by walker Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:46 am
Also if Leprechaun thinks anything….well, that would be a first.
Comment by admin Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:47 am
I’m getting a mental image of the fat kid who gets on a teeter totter, throwing the little kid on the other side up and out.
Comment by Bored Chairman Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:50 am
Ever see a candidate in a close race that wasn’t?
Comment by OneMan Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:52 am
Depserate times call for desperate measures, in my humble opinion. With POTUS, FLOTUS, and the Clintons flying in every other day, Rauner is being prudent and purchasing ad time to counter this Democratic “muscle.” #byanymeansnecessaryatthispoint
Comment by Black Ivy Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:57 am
==- dixiechick - Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:45 am:==
If you don’t have your ground game ready to go right now, you are toast. Offices & literature should be locked down and printed. Yes, you’re always recruiting volunteers, but if the plan is for Rauner to hire even more people than he already is paying for canvassing and phone banking, then good luck with that because paid canvassers are usually bad canvassers.
Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:58 am
==- Black Ivy - Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 10:57 am:==
“Prudent” would have been reserving air time months ago, when it was cheaper.
Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:00 am
admin- here’s my second thought.
Look it up Genius it’s easy to find
Comment by Leprechaun Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:00 am
3000 grp? Total overkill, and yes, most of that is wasted money, as others have said.
He’d be better off spreading $3 million around in cash, giving it out $20 at a time so A Guy and the vaunted Rauner Field Organization have something to do next weekend.
Trick or treat?
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:01 am
Diminishing returns at this point are still returns. And if the race is tight, money is flush, why not?
Comment by Hamilton Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:02 am
===And if the race is tight, money is flush, why not?===
Because there are more effective ways to spend it than television advertising.
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:06 am
Bruce is like “Ricky Roma”, trying everything to make the big sell, with little thought as to what follows.
Bruce should set aside a couple bucks for a premium open bar. He (and his crew) are going to need it.
Comment by Jocko Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:10 am
If it’s television advertising, it won’t do any good and may well backfire. If it’s for GOTV, it may well big a difference maker.
Comment by Carhart Representative Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:11 am
In a game of inches, even if the last quarter of an inch costs a million to obtain, if you have the money you buy it.
So you spend to scrape out every vote.
If Runers ad people did his ground game, he may be in more trouble then he realizes.
On a side note the overseas ad that says due in broke Washington and is making millions is hilarious. It was notable for a lack of any citation for the claims. Most of the attack ads cute to something.
Comment by Ghost Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:11 am
If we can just keep this election going a few more years, Illinois’ budget problems will be resolved. As long as Rauner spends his money in Illinois and not hiring call centers in Wisconsin or Indiana.
Comment by A Jack Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:12 am
Overseas = oberweiss spell check 4 ever
Comment by Ghost Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:12 am
Quinn is making up for it with taxpayer $ on projects we can’t afford. He’s making “major announcements” all over the state today…
Comment by Anon Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:13 am
Leperchump, why so jealous? Ok, silly question. http://youtu.be/oyDwM1VwiuQ
Comment by William j Kelly Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:13 am
The timing is right. Seems like a pre-planned infusion. Quinn should have enough on hand to fend that off.
My local RPC tells me Rauner has no lit other than his jumbo door hanger-doesn’t fit in his door bags unless folded up. Any R’s out there: Is this true? PC’s rely on a pretty standard size piece for their walk bags.
Just curious, seems like an obvious thing, but don’t want to hijack the thread.
Comment by Toure's Latte Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:14 am
The success rate of self-funded candidates is very low.
Comment by my two cents Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:15 am
Rauner has a strong, well funded and well staffed ground game.
I have no problem with him spending his money on his campaign. Better his than mine!
Comment by Peoria Guy Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:17 am
===Because there are more effective ways to spend it than television advertising.===
47th - You miss the point. It’s not about most effective when you have that sort of cash. It’s about any returns you can get anywhere. Loads of cash means a shotgun strategy prevails.
Comment by Hamilton Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:18 am
Both candidates are “desperate.” That is what happens in a close governor’s race.
Comment by Peoria Guy Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:20 am
Anybody not think SEIU and other Democratic organizations won’t match this? It’s a rich man’s game on both sides of the aisle.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:21 am
Have to wonder what a competant campaign staff could have done with that much cash after the Primary. If Rauner loses he just wasted 23 mil on bad staff, bad ads, and crappy decisions. Just 10 mil to a Pac supporting Dillard would have IMHO likely knocked Quinn out of contention. Better return on investment and you don’t have to watch all your dirty laundry aired.
Comment by Mason born Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:23 am
Rich - does early vote data get published as it happens, e.g. what precincts are seeing heavy participation?
If so, is that any indicator of enthusiasm?
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:29 am
Our county clerk told us to expect more poll watchers this year than ever. Even here in heavily Republican McLean County. We election judges take this all very seriously and we are extremely careful about protecting the integrity of the ballots. So, lay off, Raunerites!
Comment by Nearly Normal Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:41 am
Republican amnesia. Rauner remembers the money he made but not the jobs he created.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:44 am
Just think how many people lost their job to put the money in rauners pocket to splurge on buying himself a governorship.
Comment by Ghost Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:49 am
Quinn could run a montage ad of dirty beat down people, one after another, saying I lost my job, I lost my job…. And so on until the last person, a women in the streets with her kids, says so Rauner could buy a ninth luxury home…..
Comment by Ghost Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:51 am
Some perspective… In 2014 dollars, Blagojevich spent $30.9 million on his 2002 race and $23.7 million on his 2006 race. That’s a total of $54.6 million.
Rauner has raised a total of $59.8 million (so far) on this race alone.
Comment by Snucka Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 12:01 pm
For comparison’s sake, post primary in 2002 Blagojevich spent about $15-16 million from about April through December 2002, although some of that was likely leftover primary expenses. Rauner has $18m available to spend just for the final month of the campaign. The price of poker has gone way, way up.
Comment by The Captain Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 12:14 pm
Some of you guys are missing the point.
Obviously, Rauner doesn’t consider his resources unlimited for the race. If he did, he would have kept his foot on the gas in the summer when he was way up and force Quinn to burn resources.
Instead, he went dark and allowed Quinn to preserve money. Now, his big lead has evaporated and he’s chasing it in a much more expensive market with very few voters left undecided.
It was just a bad strategy and poor management.
Comment by Wordslinger Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 12:17 pm
To little to late. In boxing the best such as Golovkin go for the early knockout or TKO. Rauner should have blown Quinn away back in the summer and kept the carhart and cheap watch in the prop box. Most people and television viewers are looking forward to November 5th.
Comment by Jorge Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 12:22 pm
– Precinct Captain - Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 11:00 am: “Prudent” would have been reserving air time months ago, when it was cheaper. –
Precint Captain, “prudent” is definied as “wise or judicious in practical affairs; sagacious; discreet or circumspect; sober. 2.
careful in providing for the future; provident.” While it certainly would have been more cost-effective for Rauner to purcahse ads earlier in this rough-and-tumble campaing, he is exercvising wise judgment (again, in my opinion) in going all out at this point!
Comment by Black Ivy Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 12:41 pm
Both campaigns know they have not come close to sealing this up. Do you really think Rauner wanted to be on a downstate tour with 10 days left?
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 12:51 pm
The amount of money spent on campaigns is obscene and just gets worse every year. Just think what good all that money could do. I understand the game and the need for candidates to get their message out there but really, when is this nonsense going to stop?
I’m involved in the process and if I feel this way, I can just imagine how the average, non-political voter feels.
Comment by Because I say so... Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 1:18 pm
Thoughts? It’s just the latest in his all-out effort to buy the Election, and, hence, the Governor of Illinois’ OFFICE…billionaire elitists with virtually endless financial resources at hand can do this–and “THIS” is precisely the reason that the rest of the 99.99% of Illinoisans who could not ever even DREAM about spending $23 MILLION and COUNTing, are left shaking their heads about how HE could ever even beGIN to reMOTEly understand US, how WE humbly live OUR little middle-class lives here in this Place the 99.99% of US call Home, and just how HE could ever truly reLATE to the SIMple, daily, down-to-earth realities of OUR humble existences in the Prairie State, the GREATest State of All which WE cherish, sweat to make a living in, and pay every last DIME of all the Taxes WE owe, Bruce, to support and invest in because SOMEbody has to–(UNlike YOU and your high-falutin’ Lawyers who make sure HE gets MILLion$ in Tax Breaks while lounging around at one of his NINE Luxurious Mansion Residences in every Corner of America) whereas most of the REST of us 99.99% poor Blokes are overjoyed just to owe a mortgage on or pay rent to someone ELSE in ONE Place we rest our heads every night, and just how, frankly, such a Gazillionaire Elitist like HIM could EVer genuinely know and ever EMpathize with the day-to-day struggles virtually ALL of the REST of us who live here experience…!
Just HOW can YOU ever truly understand US, Bruce? Sorry, but don’t try to scrounge up some deceitful explanation to try and insist you can…you just CAN’T, and that’s why if somehow, God Forbid, “HE” wins this Election, the rest of us 99.99% will be in for an inexPLICable level of culture shock. I, for my part, will cast a single vote to try to not let that happen.
Comment by Just The Way It Is One Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 1:25 pm
Wait, is it CAPS LOCK Friday? It is Friday, right?
Comment by The Captain Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 2:09 pm
Quinn outperformed the polls 4 years ago and Rauner underperformed in the primary. I have no idea if that means anything come nov 4
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 2:16 pm
==- Black Ivy - Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 12:41 pm:==\
How is spending more money than you have to prudent, especially when you consider that other campaigns and advertisers are taking up inventory that was there for you the whole time? It isn’t worthwhile if Rauner is buying Adult Swim during the 3 AM hour of Squidbillies.
Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 2:34 pm
===is it CAPS LOCK Friday===
I’m pretty sure it’s a coded message. The capitalized words are the key, so it’s something about:
“office this dream million count he gin mote us we our us he late sim our great we dime we some un you he mill nine rest else one him ev en all rest”
Followed by:
“how you us can’t he plic”
It’s really quite clever and sophisticated. I think this is how they get their instructions from the mother ship, but since I can’t yet crack the code, I’m not certain. There’s a slight chance it’s simply gibberish.
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 2:37 pm
47th: It’s obvious to me, it’s not gibberish, that’s the series of commands that a hacker uses to erase Thursday October 22nd from the Internet.
Comment by Skeptic Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 2:52 pm
Except that Thursday was the 23rd…
See how effective that was?
Comment by Skeptic Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 2:53 pm
The spending of the money this recklessly just reinforces the idea that the Rauner Crew completely blew the summer, and chasing time with money, time and even timing, always wins.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Oct 24, 14 @ 2:58 pm