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Pritzker spent more than $7 million on advertising in third quarter

Monday, Oct 18, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

Since announcing his reelection bid in July, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has spent nearly $7 million in advertising, a sign of what confronts the four announced prospective Republican challengers seeking to take on the billionaire incumbent in next year’s election.

Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, spent more than $8.2 million from July through September, campaign finance reports showed. The first-term Democrat, who spent $171 million of his own money to defeat one-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018, is again self-funding his campaign and had nearly $24.7 million available in his campaign fund at the start of October.

Republicans are looking to see if or when Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder and CEO of Citadel, will weigh in on the Republican race. Griffin contributed to Rauner and spent millions to push voter defeat of Pritzker’s top agenda item to change the state’s flat-rate income tax to a graduated rate system.

Griffin has not expressed support for any of the four announced Republicans but the field could still grow.

The governor contributed about $39K to other campaign committees, including $15K to the Chicago Federation of Labor and $5K to Rep. Marcus Evans, who was one of the point persons on the climate/energy bill.

Pritzker spent almost $7.2 million on media buys and production, $274K on payroll and taxes, $182K on travel, $176K on consulting, $118K on legal services, $86K on research and $36K on software.

* Republican Jesse Sullivan reported raising $10.8 million and spent $789K, with $551K of that going to various advertising expenses.

Sen. Darren Bailey raised $894K, spent $383K, including $94K on consulting, $22K on yard signs, another $22K on t-shirts and $6K in salaries. He had a million dollars in the bank at the end of the quarter.

Gary Rabine raised $445K, spent $316K, including $146K on consulting and $63K on polling and “data.” He had $416K in the bank.

Paul Schimpf raised $60K, spent $103K, including $52K on consulting and $11K on signs. He had $73,652.58 in the bank at the end of September.

16 Comments

- Fav Human - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:16 am:
Pretty much anytime I see something on youtube, I see his very generic “I’m so proud of illinois” 15 sec ad.

I wonder the point of it, I wouldn’t think a sitting Gov needs name recognition.

- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:19 am:
The reality is..

If you don’t have $100 million… you’re wasting your own time and other people’s money.

- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:25 am:
Paul Schimpf-why?

- Arsenal - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:28 am:
==I wonder the point of it, I wouldn’t think a sitting Gov needs name recognition. ==

Being on the air > Not being on the air.

Even if everyone knows you, being out there telling your story your way is always preferred, lest someone else start telling the story *their* way.

- Grandson of Man - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:33 am:
Pritzker is doing what the Fair Tax campaign didn’t, which is getting a head start on the competition. With all that campaign money and all those first term accomplishments, there’s a lot to sell.

- Frank talks - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:37 am:
It’s only going to get more expensive

- Rich Miller - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:44 am:
===I wouldn’t think a sitting Gov needs name recognition===

And you’d be right, but that isn’t what these ads are about. There are active candidates out there running him down. Why would he just sit back if he has the cash to drown it all out?

- OneMan - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:52 am:
thinking a fair amount of that has been spent on youtube ads.

- The Fellow Edgar - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 10:56 am:
Speculation Nation here….

Schimpf is eventually running for Congress, and could not care less about winning this Governor’s race. He is only running for Governor in order to keep his name recognition relevant and to build a mailing list and donor list. He was supposed to be a federal judge by now, but that blew up spectacularly on him, so here we are.

- Birds on the Bat - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 11:32 am:
If you don’t have $100 million… you’re wasting your own time and other people’s money.

This we can agree on. A sad statement of where we are.

- Back to the Future - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 11:46 am:
It is awfully early to be spending so much mo ey.
I suspect the 7 million in spending has more to do with poor poll results on the job Pritzker is doing than responding to statements by this group of Republican candidates for Governor.

- Rich Miller - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 11:47 am:
===has more to do with poor poll results===

Wouldn’t surprise me. But I haven’t seen any numbers lately which say this.

- Cool Papa Bell - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 11:55 am:
=It is awfully early to be spending so much mo ey.=

If you have that kinda cash it’s never too early. Brands don’t stop advertising when sales are going good, they keep it up. So Coke is top of mind ahead of Pepsi.

With mega rich politicians I’ve wondered why they stop running ads once the election is over. I’d keep pounding the message.

- Flying Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 1:59 pm:
“Schimpf is eventually running for Congress, and could not care less about winning”

Ah, the ole reputation for losing races in order to win future races strategy.

- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 2:13 pm:
===Schimpf is eventually… ===

Gonna eventually run out of “eventuallies”…

How bright is it to be eventually be taken seriously?

It’s kind of embarrassing

- Arsenal - Monday, Oct 18, 21 @ 2:33 pm:
==I suspect the 7 million in spending has more to do with poor poll results on the job Pritzker is doing than responding to statements by this group of Republican candidates for Governor. ==

I suspect it has more to do with

1) JB having the money
2) Consultants who want him to spend it

Than anything.

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