* Sun-Times…

Republican Bruce Rauner’s campaign spent $20.3 million in the months from July through September, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. During the same period, he took in $20.5 million in contributions, including a $1.5 million check he wrote to himself last week. […]

During that same period, Gov. Pat Quinn spent the smaller – but still hefty – sum of $15.2 million, state records show. Unlike Rauner, Quinn spent more than he took in, raising just $8.2 million, the records show. That leaves Quinn with $4.7 million in the bank as the race heads into the home stretch – $1 million more than Rauner has banked.

That’s a bit misleading for two reasons. First, Rauner has given millions to the state GOP to help fund legislative races, which could help him locally, but wasn’t spent directly on himself. Secondly, the union-backed Illinois Freedom PAC reported spending $3.7 million on Quinn’s behalf in the third quarter. And that doesn’t count all the statewide referendum spending.

Again, if Rauner loses this race, his failure to bury Quinn by fully opening up his checkbook after the primary will be a big reason that I’ll point to. If he wins, he was frugally smart. If not, he was just plain dumb.

* We’ll get to the treasurer’s race in a bit, but check this out…

In the comptroller’s race, Democrat Sheila Simon brought in $154,000 and spent $558,000, leaving $105,000 in her checkbook.

Her opponent, Judy Baar Topinka, outraised Simon, taking in $248,000. She spent just a fraction of what Simon did, reporting a modest $69,000 in expenses. Topinka’s campaign fund balance of $1.4 million also dwarfed Simon’s $105,000.

That is one huge burn-rate by Simon, and one empty campaign kitty going into the final stretch, although she’s reported raising about $35K since the end of September.

…Adding… Ah, I see now. Simon prepaid for about $441K worth of October advertising. Not as bad as I thought.