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* Bill Daley to Greg Hinz on his new role as fundraising chairman for Chris Kennedy…
“I don’t care what J.B. (Pritzker) spends,” said Daley, referring to the rival who insiders say is prepared to spend $70 million to win the primary, and then a multiple of that against GOP incumbent Bruce Rauner. “What Chris needs to be competitive is $8 million to $10 million. That’s enough to get out the message.” […]
Figures released yesterday for the quarter ended June 30 indicate Kennedy raised just $704,000. That’s less than not only Pritzker, who donated $14 million to himself, but also Evanston state Sen. Daniel Biss, who topped the million-dollar mark. Worse, Kennedy spent all but about $50,000 of it, leaving him with less than $1 million in the bank, ahead of the prime campaign season that opens after Labor Day.
“It was a bad quarter, no question about it,” Daley told me. “There was a lot of political outreach. (But) there wasn’t even a finance committee, just a committee of stakeholders.”
Fixing that is the first thing on his agenda, Daley said. A full finance committee is being assembled (Daley declined to disclose any names), with an initial meeting set for next week. Lists of fundraising targets will be assembled, and regular calls and contacts made, he continued. Some of that will involve the candidate himself. “Chris has to spend more time on it.”
I don’t think he even needs $8-10 million. But he’s not on pace to have a few mil in the bank come January
The lack of fundraising success by a member of the Kennedy family with a huge number of wealthy contacts who proved his worth on cold calls early in his career is, by far, the biggest surprise of his entire campaign. He needs to get on those phones and stay on them. And raising a thousand bucks a pop from Hollywood stars including Larry David is ridiculously low. They blow that on lunch. Take ‘em for more.
There’s a definite side benefit to Kennedy spending lots more time on the phone raising cash. He’ll have fewer opportunities to alienate women and their babies. From a friend today…
I’ve been joking for a while that the Kennedy campaign would be better off if the whole campaign including the candidate went to Europe until after the primary and I think I’ve reached the point where it’s not really a joke anymore.
Maybe he could make those calls from Paris.
* Also, one clarification on the second quarter report from yesterday. Kennedy’s nearly 100 percent burn rate wasn’t as high as it appeared because he deferred a bunch of spending from the first quarter. Still, it wasn’t great by any measure.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:07 pm
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As long as Daley has zero input on policy or campaigning.
Comment by walker Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:10 pm
Maybe they can raise enough to buy him a nice suit.
Comment by RalphSchwartz Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:13 pm
Why set expectations like that? Just say “we’re up in the polls, we don’t need to spend as much as Pritzker who is behind”. Are they saying that if he doesn’t raise 10 times more that they know he can’t be competitive?
Comment by TopHatMonocle Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:15 pm
===I don’t think he even needs $8-10 million. But he’s not on pace to have a few mil in the bank come January===
Factoring in this burn rate, $8-10 million might be the only way to get that few million still in the bank come January.
The glaring thing from the “beginning” with Kennedy is there is zero stock piling of monies needed to get across the finish line.
He raises $5 million, Kennedy seems to find ways to spend it, and not on things, apparently, to make him look great in front of Moms and Kids.
It’s the burn rate that would scare me most now.
That, and “a Kennedy” can’t call enough people to not be embarrassed, or have “a Daley” needs to excuse a poor performance in dollars? Wow.
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:16 pm
Can someone tell me why Kennedy blew the caps off fundraising for Governor?
That’s the biggest embarrassment if I had to regroup and rank them.
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:18 pm
I can picture it:
“Larry - this is Chris Kennedy. Say…remember that recent donation? Well…this Rich Miller character says I should shake you down for lunch money. Hello?”
Comment by Curl of the Burl Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:20 pm
27 Kennedy cousins. A cool $37k per cousin brings in a $1 million.
Comment by Downstate Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:26 pm
=== Can someone tell me why Kennedy blew the caps off fundraising for Governor? ===
I keep coming back to this.
Comment by The Captain Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:27 pm
Oh great, a guy who knows a lot about talking about running but not actually running comes riding to the rescue of a guy just like him.
And how do you announce your candidacy for a statewide race against a self-funding close to billionaire incumbent without having a finance committee in place BEFORE you do it? That’s like entry level stuff there, and for most competent people would be a factor in deciding whether to actually run or not.
Comment by Ron Burgundy Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:28 pm
–“Larry - this is Chris Kennedy. Say…remember that recent donation? Well…this Rich Miller character says I should shake you down for lunch money. Hello?”–
That was pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay good!
Comment by Ron Burgundy Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:30 pm
$8 million to $10 million may be enough to get out the message, but if yesterday was any indication, who will bother to listen?
Comment by Northsider Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:32 pm
Now that Bill Daley is involved there’s no way on God’s green earth I could ever ever support Kennedy.
Just go back to making money will you and leave the politics to someone
Comment by ILGOV2018 Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:37 pm
Based on his expenditures, he spending wayyyy too much on consultants right now.
Comment by ILPundit Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:38 pm
==I’ve been joking for a while that the Kennedy campaign would be better off if the whole campaign including the candidate went to Europe until after the primary and I think I’ve reached the point where it’s not really a joke anymore.==
Funny, I overheard the same sentiment expressed by some of his campaign staffers a couple weeks ago.
Comment by ChrisB Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:40 pm
At this point does anybody have faith in Kennedy’s petition drive come September? From his fundraising to operations, there have been no signals that his team can get 10,000 signatures. I know you need half of that but if you go in with even 6,500 that’s a stressful time in case anybody challenges.
Comment by Almost The Weekend Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:49 pm
Hmm, turning a lackluster fundraising quarter into a two day story and highlighting Bill Daley’s role in your campaign. Interesting strategy, Cotton, let’s see how it plays out.
Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:52 pm
Larry is only worth $900 million. Thanks to Game of Thrones he may of had to delay his pay for Curb. He’s gotta feed his kids and all (Latrell Sprewell reference).
Comment by Glengarry Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:52 pm
I wish him well, but he had better get his act together pdq.
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:54 pm
> Can someone tell me why Kennedy blew the caps off fundraising for Governor?
I mean Pritzker was obviously going to blow them anyway, you have to assume it was just a flier to keep him out. If he wouldn’t have done it, it would’ve happened shortly thereafter anyhow.
Comment by anon2 Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:57 pm
Pushback on Pritzker from the average citizen. Not too late for Kennedy.
Comment by bee Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 2:06 pm
This guy is even worse than I originally feared. He can’t speak to the media or to citizen groups without coming off as a doofus, he can’t raise money, his policy proposals are bland to terrible, and he will have Bill Daley as his top advisor (Bill has a way of slithering his way to the top of any campaign he’s involved in). Literally the only things Kennedy has going for him as a candidate are his surname and that he can deliver a good speech that someone else wrote.
If this is the guy D’s choose to nominate, they deserve four more years of Bruce Rauner and his new burn-government-to-the-ground toadies.
Comment by Lester Holt's Mustache Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 2:12 pm
Oui, je suis la directrice des communications de Christopher Kennedy. Je suis tres, tres heureuse d’etre ici en Paris. C’est un tres belle ville, et c’est tres, tres loin de Bruce Rauner, le fleau d’Illinois.
Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 2:15 pm
==that’s a stressful time in case anybody challenges==
And I mean, the only question is which of the other campaigns will do so.
Comment by Arsenal Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 2:18 pm
@Downstate
Kennedys don’t put their own $$ into campaigns. They expect peons like you and I to do that.
Comment by Lynn S. Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 3:04 pm
Unfortunately, Chris, like his cousin Caroline, doesn’t have the “it” that made their fathers’ careers.
This is a two horse race, a proxy war of last year’s Democratic presidential primary, between the party’s moneyed political class in Pritzker, and the citizen-advocate wing that believes government can be a force of good when it is not co-opted by Democratic or Republican party elites and their team’s special interests, in Biss.
Comment by Mittuns Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 3:46 pm
Mom, I know zero Francais but I got that message.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 4:37 pm
Kennedy is only Democrat I could support. Adding Bill Daley is a good move.
Comment by Ron Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 6:35 pm