JB Pritzker Spending Nearly Doubles Gov. Rauner In Home Stretch

CHICAGO — State and federal candidates submitted quarterly fundraising reports Monday. They provide the first look at how much campaigns have been spending since June. In the race for governor, filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections show the self-financed campaign of billionaire front-runner J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic challenger, spent more than $47 million last quarter. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's campaign spent less than $27 million, about 56 percent as much.

Pritzker raised $41.6 million last quarter. Of that, he gave himself $40 million. The rest was provided by individual contributions, including five people who made $100,000 contributions, such as Newsweb Chairman Fred Eychaner, and three who chipped in $50,000, like Chicago Fire owner Andrew Hauptman.

Other celebrity donors for whom the benefits of having the ear of the potential governor are not so obvious: professional poker player Phil Hellmuth, Hollywood composer Danny Elfman and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, who all provided donations of $5,000 or less.

Rauner brought in less than $2.2 million between June 30 and Oct. 1, according to the filings. The largest donations to his campaign committee were a $250,000 donation from C3 Energy CEO Tom Siebel and $200,000 gifts from Mac Neil Automotive Products of Bolingbrook and Joe Mansueto of investment firm Morningstar.

Rauner spent about $16.7 million on advertising, $2.6 million online, according to an analysis by the group Reform for Illinois. Pritzker spent $24.9 million on ads, $17.7 million million going to the Philadelphia-based consulting firm Shorr Johnson Magnus Strategic Media, which had received nearly $56 million from the campaign as of last month.

Both candidates have supplied local party and candidate committees with millions last quarter. Each gave $1 million to the campaign committee of their party's candidate for attorney general.

Rauner's campaign transferred a total of $7.3 million to other committees during the summer. It gave $6 million to the House Republican Organization, $235,000 to the Illinois Republican Party, a few thousand each to suburban township central committees, $5,000 each to Lake and Macon county Republicans and smaller amounts to other county-level central committees.

Pritkzer's campaign provided $9.4 million in support to Illinois Democrats, including $3 million last quarter to committees chaired by House Speaker Mike Madigan, $1.6 million to the Rock Island Democratic Central Committee and $1 million to Senate President John Cullerton's Senate Democratic Victory Fund. He also chipped in transfers ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to Chicago Democratic ward organizations and Democratic candidates.

Full reports: Citizens for Rauner, JB for Governor (via ISBE)

The candidates also revealed new details about their personal wealth Tuesday. Rauner released his 2017 federal tax return in a press release in the morning and called on Pritzker to do the same. Within a few hours, Pritkzer campaign released his joint return.

Here's what they show:

Bruce and Diana Rauner brought in a total of $52.7 million, claimed $11.8 million in deductions and paid a total of nearly $4 million in federal income taxes, which comes out to 34.1 percent of his taxable income, according to his federal return.

The governor's state tax return shows he and his wife brought in about $54.1 in income taxable in Illinois. They paid more than $2.15 million into state coffers for a rate of under 4 percent.

Jay and Mary Pritzker reported income of $41.1 million and claimed $6.7 million in deductions. They paid $14.9 million in federal taxes, amounting to 43 percent of their taxable income.

The Pritzkers reported nearly $55 million in total Illinois income. They paid $811,816 in state taxes in Illinois and nearly $1.6 million to other states.

Previously released Pritzker tax returns reported income levels of $3.1 million in 2014, $9.9 million in 2015 and $15 million in 2016, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. In the same time period, the Rauners reported $58 million in 2014, $176 million in 2015 and $73.3 million in 2016.

Both men have relied on spending millions to propel their political careers and gubernatorial ambitions. Pritzker has cut himself checks for almost $150 million since entering the race last March. Rauner had donated nearly $100 million to his own campaign by December 2016 but has not made a donation to himself since, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

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