7 Comments - wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 17, 18 @ 10:09 am: –Take notice of the cash on hand, although it’s a sure bet that Gov. Rauner will weigh in heavily for Erika Harold and perhaps others. – I wonder. He went heavy for Munger, but did oogats for Kirk. Spending a lot on Munger made sense, as she was an extension of the governor’s staff as comptroller, doing his bidding on who-got-paid-when. We’ve seen Mendoza give Rauner fits by shining a light on his fiscal shenanigans. Can the Illinois AG tune up a governor much? Nothing comes to mind. It’s not as powerful of an office as some like to pretend. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Apr 17, 18 @ 10:26 am: ===Can the Illinois AG tune up a governor much?=== Yes. AG Madigan conducted a full-fledge probe of Blagojevich before the US Attorney in Chicago asked her to stop. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 17, 18 @ 10:27 am: Right now… Rauner needs to fund his bought Caucuses. Ownership is costly. Rauner will want to keep Harold awash in cash, if only to make Raoul either raise money other places that could drain Dem resources or to force Pritzker to keep pace there too, not allowing “why won’t Pritzker help Kwame” to start. Frerichs, Mendoza and White… … not too many people could name one, let alone three, of the people running against that Crew. The Mendoza lesson for Rauner is an easy one to see now; Labor and Dems withstood “Madigan” because when Labor and Dems want to send a message to Rauner, they can. Will they again? Dunno. The sticker prices could be… Rauner - “out the door”, his race, Caucuses, Harold, some nickels abs dimes to unknown statewides… north of $190 million(?) Pritzker - “out the door”, his race, state ground game apparatus, seed and offset Labor monies geared toward the Caucuses, Jesse, Mike, Susanna, keeping them involved in GOTV… north of $205 million. That’s factoring in… just their own spending, north of $60 million already spent… - Board Watcher - Tuesday, Apr 17, 18 @ 10:46 am: Rauner wants to keep turnout low that’s why they found the crew they did. In turn they wont see much money coming their way from Rauner. Harold will get help because she is his hand picked candidate, the other 2 volunteered themselves for this suicide mission. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 17, 18 @ 10:52 am: ===Rauner wants to keep turnout low that’s why they found the crew they did.=== Absolutely. In a statewide “thing”, yep… depressed turnout helps Rauner. Funding the Caucuses, however, in the micro, and trying to go after Pritzker… that will be a big time monetary ask. - illini - Tuesday, Apr 17, 18 @ 10:58 am: Money ( or the lack of it ) will always be a determining factor in our politics. Taking this to a more local race I looked at the numbers for the 54th Senate Race - my district. McCarter is retiring so there was an open race on the republican side. Four candidates filed. And Jason Plummer, the prohibitive favorite in the primary was one of them. So what happened? This two time failed candidate raised close to $120,000 and spent $152,000 to blow his competitors totally out of contention. Yet he is still carrying a debt of $1,300,000 from his last failed race in 2009-10. I guess Dad is not terribly concerned about being paid back. How will even the most viable Democrat be able to compete with the resources available to the Plummer campaign. Look out Springfield, Jason may be coming your way. - DarkHorse - Tuesday, Apr 17, 18 @ 1:43 pm: I don’t think Rauner cares about Harold. He cares about himself. He spent $300k on ads for her, but they were all parroting Rauner’s “anti-Madigan” message. It also seems that Harold is working very hard to raise money - which to me means that she’s not entirely sure how much Bruce is going to help, It would be just like a private equity guy like Rauner to say: “Erika, I’ll match whatever you raise, dollar for dollar”. Note that Rauner and the GOP are almost exactly 50% of her contributions. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.