Billionaire hedge fund founder Ken Griffin contributed $20 million Tuesday to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s re-election campaign, an early escalation in a big-money 2018 contest expected to shatter previous spending records.
The contribution by Illinois’ wealthiest individual is believed to be the largest contribution ever given to a campaign by a noncandidate in the state.
“Gov. Rauner cares deeply about the future of our state and making it a better place to live and work,” Griffin said in a statement. “He has the winning plan to create jobs, improve our schools and put Illinois on the right path forward.”
Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, has been Rauner’s largest donor outside of the governor himself. The latest contribution brings to nearly $33.6 million the amount of money and services Griffin has contributed to the governor’s political fund since Rauner began running for office in 2013.
Rauner, a former private equity investor, has put in $95 million of his own money. That includes $50 million last December, a contribution campaign aides said was only a down payment toward next year’s race.
Griffin is worth an estimated $8 billion and is ranked 60th on Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. Griffin’s donation gives Rauner’s re-election account nearly $71 million, virtually all of it from the two men.
The eye-popping contribution comes as Rauner faces a host of potential Democratic challengers. They include billionaire J.B. Pritzker, who already has put $7.2 million of his own money into his primary campaign, and businessman Chris Kennedy of the iconic political family, who lifted the donation limits in the race by putting $250,100 of his own money into his bid.
Other, less wealthy candidates seeking the Democratic nomination include Evanston state Sen. Daniel Biss, Northwest Side Ald. Ameya Pawar and Madison County regional schools Superintendent Bob Daiber.
Pritzker, worth an estimated $3.4 billion and ranked 208th on Forbes’ list, has indicated he is willing to self-fund his campaign. If he wins the March primary election, his wealth combined with that of Rauner and his allies could set off the most expensive political contest in state history.
In a statement, Pritzker’s campaign blasted what it called “Ken Griffin and the Rauner-Trump agenda,” and said the Republican governor’s “special interest friends are back to bail him out.”
“Before once again dumping money into Rauner’s campaign, Ken Griffin donated $100,000 to Donald Trump’s inaugural,” said Pritzker spokeswoman Galia Slayen. “It’s clear that Ken Griffin and Rauner’s special interest allies want to force the Rauner-Trump agenda on our state, which attacks our working families and is decimating our economy.”
Pritzker’s wealth has become an issue in the Democratic campaign, with his rivals urging the party not to merely seek a candidate who can go toe-to-toe on a dollar basis with Rauner.
Kennedy’s campaign released a statement warning that “Democrats should not fall into the trap of replacing one billionaire for another. Party insiders might think that is the best way to beat Bruce Rauner, but voters know we can’t afford more of the status quo.”
On Monday, Kennedy pushed back against unnamed Democratic Party “political insiders” who he said are trying to silence his bid for the governor’s office, saying he won’t be intimidated by those defending the status quo.
“I think there are elements within the Democratic Party that would like to have someone fight their battle for them. I’m not among them. I believe you look back at the great history of the United States and the progress that’s been made, it always occurred when people fought for themselves,” Kennedy told reporters.
Pawar, a two-term alderman who has raised almost $300,000, criticized Rauner and Griffin for pushing a “Trump-aligned” agenda, and later used the Griffin donation in a fundraising appeal to supporters.
“This billionaire class wants to buy Illinois for themselves. Don’t think for a moment these wealthy people have anyone’s interests but their own at heart,” Pawar said in a statement. “”We have to to stop worshiping wealth, get big money out of politics, and unite as a state around an agenda that invests in communities and people.”
Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, also has come under attack from Republicans this week for receiving a lowered property tax assessment after purchasing a home next to his Gold Coast mansion and then contending it was “uninhabitable.”
Pritzker has said criticism from the Rauner camp shows the governor’s team believes he is a threat to re-election. But the Rauner-subsidized Illinois Republican Party used the property tax break issue to launch a new digital ad, seeking to link Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also is a property tax appeals lawyer, and Pritzker as part of the “same corrupt political system.”
Trying to shift away from days of criticism over the property-tax issue, Pritzker on Tuesday turned to Washington with a call for the U.S. House “to begin the impeachment process based on credible reports that President Donald Trump has obstructed justice in the investigation of the Russian hacking of our democracy.”
“I understand that calling for impeachment is not something done lightly, but it is an action that I believe is necessary to protect our country’s national security and preserve our democracy,” said Pritzker, who like his rivals are seeking to portray themselves as progressives.
Also Tuesday, State Solutions, an affiliate of the Republican Governors Association that does not have to disclose its donors, launched the newest version of its TV ads featuring Rauner.
Unlike previous spots, which have been airing continuously since the end of March, the newest commercial goes after Democrats. It displays pictures of imprisoned ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and former Gov. Pat Quinn surrounding a picture of Speaker Madigan — and dubs them the “Duct Tape Dynasty.”
Rauner defeated Quinn in 2014, and the Republican has sought to vilify Madigan as the source of the state’s problems with millions of dollars worth of advertising. The governor and speaker are waging an ideological and political war that has led to Illinois’ historic budget impasse.
Rauner has said he’ll sign off on a budget-balancing tax hike only if he gets “structural reforms” that have included changes in collective bargaining and prevailing wage laws affecting unions and alterations to workers’ compensation opposed by civil trial attorneys. Democrats, who receive major campaign contributions from organized labor and trial attorneys, are opposed.
In the new ad, a narrator says: “For decades, the duct-tape dynasty has ruled Springfield. Mike Madigan’s taped over Illinois’ problems and stopped reform, because the broken system works for him, not us.”
The ad shows the Illinois Statehouse dome cracking and taped over as the cupola falls off. The ad then shifts to Rauner, once again inside a pristine workshop.
“We need real reform, not the same old broken ideas that got us into this mess,” he says in the ad. “Our balanced budget plan fixes Springfield with important reforms that grow jobs. It supports the middle class, not the political class. They broke Illinois but we can fix it, together.”
The ads have been airing extensively all over the state, but a Rauner political aide said the governor has not given money to State Solutions, a tax-exempt organization that does not have to disclose where it gets its money.
During the 2016 election cycle, Griffin’s Citadel LLC and Citadel Investments each gave $500,000 to State Solution’s parent, the Republican Governors Association, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ “open secrets” database.
In last year’s races for state comptroller and the General Assembly, Griffin made more than $11.1 million in donations. That included $5 million to appointed Republican comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger, who was defeated by Democrat Susana Mendoza, and $5 million to House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs.
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