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Money

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First, the AP gives us the raw numbers.

The governor brought in about $6.5 million in the first six months of 2006 and spent nearly $10 million, much of that on television advertisements promoting his re-election bid after easily winning the March Democratic primary, a campaign spokeswoman said Monday.

That left him with about $12.2 million in the bank as of June 30 — far more than the $1.5 million his Republican opponent, state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, had on that date.

Topinka raised about $3.2 million in the first half of the year and spent more than $3 million of that to win a heated Republican primary against three other largely self-financed candidates, her campaign said Monday.

The Sun-Times adds this:

Since at least 1986, the gubernatorial candidate with the money edge at the mid-point of the election year won in November.

And this:

Like Topinka, all the other GOP candidates for statewide office were trailing their Democratic counterparts.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan had 50 times as much money as GOP challenger Stu Umholtz.

“We have a strategy, and we’re running a grass-roots campaign,” Umholtz said. “And I don’t think it takes obscene amounts of money to get elected.”

But the Trib has this:

Since June 30, Topinka has been the beneficiary of high-profile fundraisers headlined by President Bush and two prospective Republican presidential contenders, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Those fundraisers and others are expected to generate an additional $2 million for Topinka.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 6:37 am

Comments

  1. Topinka = Toast.

    Apparently, Patrick Fitzgerald was Topinka’s campaign strategy all along.

    Rich, loved your reference in the Fax to Umholtz as an “alleged” candidate.

    All of the insiders who were predicting Giannolias’s demise can think again.

    The big question this fall is whether Republicans will even show up for the polls.

    Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 6:49 am

  2. I’ll avoid the double post but I talked about this in the day’s first thread. Judy is a not ready for prime time player. She did want to run, she wanted Edgar to run. She is not a VIABLE candidate. While others will talk about what’s wrong with Rod, how he is looking for a bigger office, how is taking the state down the wrong path, yada, yada, yada, the fact of the matter is he wants to be re-elected and he is working to get re-elected. Judy does not really want the job and her lack of a vision and her MISERABLE fundraising numbers show it. Somebody needs to remind her that when she loses she can’t go back to the Treasurer’s office. She is running this campaign like she has something to fall back on if she loses.

    Criticize Rod all you want, but if he is as bad as many of you say how come Judy is not doing better? Here is my earlier post from today:

    https://capitolfax.com/2006/08/01/morning-shorts-85/#comments

    Comment by wndycty Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 6:58 am

  3. When you have $450,000 devoted to payroll, and you’re only reporting with $1.5, you’re done. What a joke.

    Comment by Rhino Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 7:56 am

  4. So she has $1.5 million on hand — impressive. Rich, you mentioned that $800K of this came in the last three days of June. Could that have been money for the July 6th President Bush fundraiser? If so, and if they raised $1.2 million as claimed, is it possible that she banked 2/3 of that pot before the reporting deadline to show something to potential donors so that the well wouldn’d run dry?

    I guess we will find out in October when JBT shows just $400K in new money from the 7/6 event. Would you consider this dishonest? Would you try to get to the bottom of it? If I were a potential donor, I would feel like the wool was being pulled over my eyes. And I dont like that.

    Comment by Juice Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 7:57 am

  5. There is a story here? What a waste of space. Blagojevich has raised over $2000 an hour as governor instead of governing, so this story is nothing new. What can you do for $2000 an hour? Whatever he did to get this cash? No one shells out this kind of money without something in return. So, you go figure why he’s ahead and why he proposes selling off state assets to folks that are also campaign contributors.

    This is not even news. I’m tired of the mindless lemmings of political journalism bringing out the old saw about who has the most dough. Then they completely ignor this rule when the rich guy loses. We start seeing these stupid stories every campaign season. The campaign trail is littered with losers with bucks.

    All we are going to read here today is Blagojevich supporters claiming this means he’s going to overcome all and take us into that glorious nirvana we’ve been experiencing for the past four years. Big deal! No one should expect any Republican to catch up with Blagojevich in the filthy lucre department, Rod sold out for this dough. Get real.

    Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 8:50 am

  6. In the Giannoulias / Radogno reports I think one thing that stands out beyond the the nearly two to one money advantage that Giannoulias has is the fact that he has 809 individual contributions as compared to Radogno’s 230.

    Looks like Giannoulias has a broad base of support as compared to Radogno.

    Comment by (618) Democrat Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 9:02 am

  7. Lets wait for the RNC, another Bush visit, The GOP Guv’s Assosciation, and perhaps AFSCME, to help raise funds. Meanwhile who is going to give Rod money? She will have over $10 mill, and be able to compete, Jim Ryan had lousy fundraising numbers and competed. Oh yes, there is still investigations going on as well.

    Comment by scoot Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 10:05 am

  8. “We have a strategy, and we’re running a grass-roots campaign,” Umholtz said.

    ….Are the Daughters of the American Revolution helping go door to door in Little Egypt Stu?

    …How about the Peoria Yacht Club? Are they helping out in Central Illinois?

    …Maybe the NIU Booster Club has Northern Illinois covered…

    It’s shaping up to be an elephant slaughter this November. What’s wrong with Republicans? With this sort of wimpiness they won’t go anywhere but down.

    Comment by NW burbs Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 10:15 am

  9. If people want to give Rod bucks, that is their choice. He seems to hit on whatever they need to hear. I can’t imagine that all the contributors expect to get a huge payoff. At the same time can’t imagine the GOP will let a chance for a Repub gov slip by without major investing. I can see TV/radio/newspaper marketing departments pushing how valuable ads are particularly on their stations/paper just to get that seasonal sales jump.

    Comment by zatoichi Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 10:56 am

  10. wndycty -

    You say JBT is not a viable candidate? Then what the hell is GovPutz? A VIABLE governor? NOT.

    Comment by Buck Flagojevich Tuesday, Aug 1, 06 @ 5:18 pm

  11. I think Wyndycty is the Gordon Gecko of Illinois political discussion. As long as his man, the Virility King, is doing it, it’s ethical and OK by him. I don’t know who spoke the original of this quote but it fits - “It’s all about the money, baby.”

    Comment by Disgusted Wednesday, Aug 2, 06 @ 7:08 am

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