Biss reports raising $825K
Friday, Oct 6, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
Biss for Illinois announced today that, for the second quarter in a row, Daniel Biss has raised more than JB Pritzker and Chris Kennedy, both of whom have written personal checks to their own campaigns to reach their quarterly totals.
The campaign raised over $825,000 in the third quarter and now sits with more than $2.6 million cash on hand. Donations came from more than 2,650 donors representing over 270 cities and towns across Illinois. Seventy-five percent of these donations were for under $100, and ninety-six percent came from in-state.
Biss Campaign Manager Abby Witt issued the following statement in response to third quarter fundraising results:
“JB Pritzker is spending over $120,000 of his own money every day. That’s more than Daniel and his wife’s combined income in an entire year. Chris Kennedy has written his campaign two checks, totaling $500,000. That’s more than Daniel’s house is worth.
“There’s a reason a math teacher and state legislator can out-raise ultra-wealthy political insiders: Illinoisans are tired of the rich and powerful holding the reigns of power in this state. Instead of resigning themselves to a broken system, voters are taking politics into their own hands by electing a middle-class governor they can trust to fight for them.”
Yes, he did raise more money than Kennedy. Again.
But Sen. Biss’ fundraising pace has slowed since the second quarter, when he raised just over a million bucks. That’s not a good sign. The lieutenant governor debacle may have hurt him. It didn’t kill him off, but it surely didn’t help.
- Responsa - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:16 am:
If the statement that JB is spending $120,000 per day at this very early stage of the gubernatorial campaign is anywhere near accurate then the only word to describe it is obscene.
- Periwinkle - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:18 am:
Too bad his campaign manager isn’t from a rich family that could donate $250K like Pawar’s - he could’ve gotten close to that million.
- City Zen - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:25 am:
==That’s more than Daniel and his wife’s combined income in an entire year.==
Not exactly a bragging point for 2 individuals holding PhD’s.
- Time Bandit - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:27 am:
Biss’s campaign manager crying poor mouth.
- Chris Widger - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:27 am:
“They can trust to fight for them,” Biss says? Doesn’t he realize he’s just paraphrasing Governor Rauner’s tweet yesterday saying that Illinois is worth fighting for? When will politicians be held responsible for their plagiarism?
- northshore cynic - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:27 am:
Maybe the Senator should have spent a little more time vetting running mates and less time raising money.
- jake - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:32 am:
==That’s more than Daniel and his wife’s combined income in an entire year.==
==Not exactly a bragging point for 2 individuals holding PhD’s.==
Some people have chosen careers that don’t pay the top dollar but are very useful to society. Nothing to be ashamed of.
- DDR - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:38 am:
A 120 grand a day?! Just try and wrap your head around that. The commoner has zero chance of competing in politics. It’s a sad reality.
- DrurysMissingClock - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:40 am:
Something tells me a lot of those small dollar donations were over the course of Labor Day and have since dried up.
- Periwinkle - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:43 am:
===Not exactly a bragging point for 2 individuals holding PhD’s.===
This comment makes no sense. Biss is a state legislator, so his income would reflect that, and Biss’s wife just got her PhD. Besides, no one gets a PhD for the money.
- LakeEffect - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:49 am:
I’d rather have a candidate who is 500k beholden to himself than a candidate who is over 500k beholden to campaign committees of long time insiders - boss gets five and six figure checks from Springfield leadership pacs. That is not grassroots
- LakeEffect - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:49 am:
Biss, not boss
- DarkHorse - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:57 am:
For a guy with a campaign going nowhere, Biss does manage to raise an impressive amount of money. But I’ll bet his numbers fall even more in Q4, and I wonder if he’ll drop out before the primary.
- DuPage Bard - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 9:58 am:
Biss blows up Kennedy again. What happened to rainmaker Daley?
When is Kennedy actually going to play in this game? Camelot may have lost its luster.
- Anon0091 - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:03 am:
“Daniel Biss has raised more than JB Pritzker and Chris Kennedy.”
That’s a really weird sentence since JB isn’t “raising” money. If he means he put in more than JB in Q3, that’s just silly.
And I have no idea how they’re calculating 120,000/day, but that too is just silly. Cmon Bissies. Get real.
- Ghost - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:05 am:
Biss “elect me so i can double my income, the math thing ain’t working out…”
- TopHatMonocle - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:08 am:
How a candidate spends their time is important. I imagine Biss in a closet-sized room dialing for dollars all day. I image Kennedy on vacation at his team’s urging. I imagine Pritzker traveling around the state in a bus meeting people. Advantage Pritzker.
Biss is clearly good at fundraising, but it’s completely neutralized by Pritzker putting his own money in. Biss has to have million dollar quarters just to continue treading water.
- Teddy - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:11 am:
Biss is an impressive fundraiser. What on earth is wrong with Kennedy? Everything about his campaign screams that he doesn’t really even want this job.
- Ghost - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:14 am:
Kennedy doesn’t really have a campaign, more of a name brand with a few promotions
- City Zen - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:24 am:
Periwinkle - Two smart individuals got advanced degrees from top notch and expensive institutions that many can only dream of attending, made career decisions that do not translate to a certain level of financial prosperity, then use those decisions as a crutch to defend against others’ perceived wealth.
No one forced them to make those decisions. Two PhD’s unable to break the $120K barrier is not anyone else’s problem but those PhD’s.
- LakeEffect - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:29 am:
120k per day is about 11 million for a Quarter. Pritzker is absolutely spending that. The former mathematician Daniel Biss would even agree
- Alternative Logic - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:35 am:
===Two PhD’s unable to break the $120K barrier is not anyone else’s problem but those PhD’s.===
That’s a pretty tone deaf observation when you consider $120K pretty much aligns with two-times the Illinoís median household income.
- Curl of the Burl - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:38 am:
Biss certainly excites people. I remember when he first ran for state rep. He used Act Blue to raise a bunch of small donations nationwide. He knows how to tap into the left-leaning donor base.
- JohnnyPyleDriver - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:44 am:
Another impressive quarter for Biss, keep it up. You’re going to need every penny to keep running against the monopoly man
- City Zen - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 10:53 am:
==That’s a pretty tone deaf observation when you consider $120K pretty much aligns with two-times the Illinoís median household income.==
Agreed, but that observation is from Biss’ camp. They’re the one’s using their income as a barometer.
- Amalia - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:05 am:
“Bisses” oh, that is priceless, and classless. wait, maybe it’s in the $120,000 a day.
- Periwinkle - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:08 am:
CityZen, Biss chose to become a state legislator. Personally I admire people who forego making a lot of money to choose public service.
- Thomas Paine - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:18 am:
Bizarre release from Biss.
I don’t think there is any doubt that Pritzker could raise more money than Biss if that was his desire.
But yes, it does shine a light on Kennedy’s failures and Bill Daley’s blustery prognostications.
Considering how much the Daley family relied on the Jewish community for fundraising, and how community leaders have lined up behind JB, I imagine Daley is getting a lot of no’s from the usual suspects.
- wordslinger - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:20 am:
If I were JB, I’d try to direct cash to Kennedy, Biss, all of them in hopes that they all can successfully get on the ballot.
- The Muse - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:34 am:
Biss with another good quarter. Outraising Kennedy will continue to get his name out there and keep him close. It’s a shame we probably won’t be able to tell how much he was raising this quarter just prior to his announcement of Rosa and then after.
- lake county democrat - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 11:56 am:
I don’t blame JB for spending a lot early - ask Mitt Romney if he regrets letting others define him before opening up the coffers. I still don’t think it’s that big a deal Kennedy hasn’t raised tons of money: every Democrat voting in the primary either knows who he is at some level or will know it come election time. Pritzker needs to spend all that money just to get to the same level of recognition. As for Biss, I still think he’s a Madigan stalking horse so I’m not that surprised he’s getting substantial money, whether that’s at Madigan’s direction directly or via lower frequencies.
- @MisterJayEm - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:02 pm:
“The lieutenant governor debacle may have hurt him. It didn’t kill him off, but it surely didn’t help.”
Alas, it took him out of consideration in our home.
– MrJM
- JohnnyPyleDriver - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:22 pm:
==I still think he’s a Madigan stalking horse==
The party is backing Pritzker. How is this not blatantly, obviously clear at this point? lol
- Ron - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:32 pm:
Biss will lose in the primary by quite a bit.
- I'mDone - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:38 pm:
====That’s more than Daniel and his wife’s combined income in an entire year.==
Not exactly a bragging point for 2 individuals holding PhD’s.==
Apparently you have no idea what academics make. Daniel is a full time legislator and his wife is a stay at home mom right now with their small kids. Take a look at college and university salaries for non-tenured professors. They’re overworked and underpaid.
- Molly Maguire - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:54 pm:
A friend just canceled a Biss house party because of poor response. Was his kind of voters.
- Soccermom - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 12:57 pm:
Ghost — Come on. If Biss wanted to make real money, all he’d have to do was take his impressive math background and become a quant. He’s not running for Governor to get a pay raise. There are much easier ways for him to make much more money.
- Anon0091 - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 1:11 pm:
Lake County Democrat, you say things like this: “every Democrat voting in the primary either knows who he is at some level or will know it come election time” all the time with zero evidence to back it up. Everyone knows who “Kennedy” is but nobody knows who “Chris Kennedy” is. And now that we know Kennedy only added $240k to his COH this quarter, we know he won’t be on TV any time soon so that won’t change.
When you have name ID, you have to leverage it with an effective campaign. Chris Kennedy has utterly failed to date to do so. If you don’t, over time you fall as better known candidates rise. My guess is we’ll see that soon enough.
- Lakeview Lou - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 1:40 pm:
I wouldn’t sleep on Biss. He is the Dark Horse in this race. The 3rd quarter is always the most difficult to fundraise and all of the Bernie small donors will come home to Biss soon. He held is own.
Kennedy pulled out all the stops this quarter and Biss still out raised him. He is lucky he has universal name id or he would be done. He is running a lackluster campaign
I don’t understand why JB doesn’t have a fundraising operation if only to take money from the other candidates and engage small donors that could be converted into volunteers. Not saying he needs to have a phone ducktaped to his head but even Rauner raised money. He is running a very boring Clintonesque campaign but is clearly the front runner.
It will be interesting to see how the race plays out. At some point Kennedy will bring out the knifes and go negative as his numbers slip. If JB responds and gets down in the mud with Kennedy, Biss will have a shot to squeak out a win. Should be fun to watch.
- City Zen - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 1:53 pm:
I’mDone - I’m well aware of what academics make. Apparently, the academics have yet to become self-aware.
Biss isn’t a ju-co grad filling potholes while he wife turns the stop/slow sign. They are Ivy League graduates with doctorates from the most prestigious learning institutions, attempting to use their financial decisions as some sort of baseline in political economics. It’s a false “cry poor”.
Biss CHOSE to go into public service. Great for him. But don’t complain JB contributes more to his campaign than you make in a year when they have the necessary tools to make more in a year. Not our problem.
- Franklin Delano Bluth - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 1:58 pm:
City Zen
In what world do you live in where you get to choose whether or not you’re born into a family that runs the Hyatt Hotel franchise?
- City Zen - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 2:14 pm:
Franklin - Apparently, I live in the world where a MIT graduate complains he doesn’t make enough money.
- JohnnyPyleDriver - Friday, Oct 6, 17 @ 2:48 pm:
It’s certainly a bizarre way to interpret the statement if you take it as “complaining” about the amount of money he makes. He’s clearly and obviously demonstrating that he (Biss) is middle class while JB is not. Not difficult