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* Politico…
The Illinois GOP has never been a fundraising juggernaut, and yet the first quarter numbers were still pretty bleak.
For the first quarter, Illinois GOP reported receiving a little more than $115,000 in donations, leaving $74,374 in the bank after expenses, according to the State Board of Elections.
Usually, the ILGOP does much better with its federal fundraising, but they only raised about $100k in January and February and had about $230K on hand.
* More…
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin raised $125,000 in the first quarter and had about $267,00 on hand after expenses. His House Republican Organization, which funds GOP reps’ campaigns, raised $111,000, leaving a mere $200 in the bank after expenses. And Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie raised $68,000 and has $432,000 cash on hand. His caucus committee raised $206,000 and has $209,000 in the bank.
As I told subscribers on Friday, HRO reported raising $219K since the end of the quarter. Their new House Republican Majority committee reported $48,500 in contributions this month.
* More…
The Democratic Party of Illinois, meanwhile, received about $2 million, leaving it with $2.6 million cash on hand. And Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker reports having $35 million in the bank, thanks to his self-funding.
DPI reported raising just $2,500 since Robin Kelly was elected party chair. That $2 million was a transfer from Democratic Majority before Chairman Madigan left office. He then moved half of that back to the caucus committee.
* Center for Illinois Politics…
Democrats currently have five active party-wide committees. Each of these committees may broadly distribute funds to other Democratic committees across the state, helping pool and direct party funds to various strategic races. Put together, the five Democratic committees had a total of $5,411,409 in available funds as of March 31st, and raised $3,139,147 from January 1st to March 31st. By contrast, Republicans have four active party-wide committees. As of March 31st, all of them totaled $434,280 in available funds, having raised $432,559.68 from during the same time period - a startling advantage for Democrats, giving them a major financial edge of more than 12 times the current funds of Republicans.
Much the same holds true for the committees of each party’s leadership: Senate President Don Harmon’s individual committee had $5,988,860 in available funds as of March 31st, with newly-elected Speaker Chris Welch holding $1,223,835 (Note: Madigan had over $10 million in his individual campaign account). By contrast, Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie only had $432,323, with House Minority Leader Jim Durkin holding $266,564. Outside of the General Assembly, Governor Pritzker’s committee currently has $35,084,460 in available funds ($35,000,000 of which was donated by Pritzker himself on March 12th), while Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton’s committee holds $33,663. Once again, Democrats take the lead - and it bears mentioning that funds in these individual committees can also be transferred to other candidates. These well-funded individual committees may also serve as party-wide assets.
Democrats are clearly poised to have a strong financial advantage next year - a lot more money is going to start trickling into political committees as the year goes by, but the Democratic Party has a formidable head start. However, it remains to be seen how much difference it will ultimately make: Democrats poured millions into political committees supporting last year’s progressive tax ballot initiative, yet it still failed to pass when a single Republican donor (Ken Griffin) stepped up and matched the pot. As always, it will ultimately come down to individual Illinoisans, and for whom they choose to cast their vote.
Note: Additional leadership funds were collected by both parties via A -1 filings: Republicans received $133,750 and Democrats received $288,000.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 1:21 pm
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At this point, I’m surprised they have enough money to keep their staff on payroll.
Comment by NIU Grad Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 1:25 pm
Looks GOP donors are also the Party of No.
Comment by Name Withheld Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 1:31 pm
Can we also talk about the fundraising machine that is Raja Krishnamoorthi? Raised more than Adam Kinzinger this quarter, despite Kinzinger’s recent popularity. Raja now has a staggering $9.4M on hand.
Comment by Downstate Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 1:35 pm
Have they tried getting a job or pulling themselves up by their bootstraps?
Comment by Grimlock Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 1:35 pm
===I’m surprised they have enough money to keep their staff on payroll. ===
There is always some pressure to give up your time and skills for free to the State Party or individual candidates due to concern of being fired from your gig working as caucus staff.
Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 1:56 pm
Just because the republican party decided to ignore the insurrectionists in their midst, doesn’t mean the rest of the public is.
I’d wager trying to ignore it in the hopes it just goes away is one of the prime reasons for their money problems.
Outside of their bubble, the general population does not want to give money to a group which is actively supporting overthrowing democracy, and those who do want to support it generally do not have money.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 2:03 pm
===Outside of their bubble, the general population ===
The general population doesn’t typically contribution to state parties.
Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 2:05 pm
I would guess this is just a matter of donors deciding IL is a lost cause for the GOP. Much like the GOP decided Chicago was a lost cause at some point in time, then fell back, then decided Cook County burbs were a lost cause. Once a party starts that falling back stage, doesn’t seem like it pops back real fast to being competitive.
Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 2:17 pm
Republican money problems are directly correlated to their lack of sane candidates and their whacky policy, or lack thereof.
Comment by PublicServant Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 2:50 pm
I wrote this a few days ago when a certain county was having money problems…
=== - Oswego Willy - Friday, Apr 16, 21 @ 3:20 pm
…
To the post,
Politics is poetry. Always been.
If you can’t find people willing to pay to hear your poetry, vote for your versus, move people to rally to the words… like all bad poets… you’re broke, on the street, and wondering, bitterly, why others don’t get your genius.
I can’t help these folks. Wish I could.
Their ideas and poetry, it’s accidentally comical, farce, and seeing that… eviction isn’t just real, but symbolic.===
What Raunerites and Trumpkins say isn’t at all poetry, and the monolithic ways rarely bring folks together.
If I’m suppose to believe money is speech…
… lots of “shhhh” going on with empty coffers.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 2:54 pm
Grimlock wins
Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 2:58 pm
=== The general population doesn’t typically contribution to state parties. ===
In quickly parsing through their Schedule A, it looks like quite a bit of the general population was previously giving them donations.
There are still a few left, but nowhere near the previous volume. The heavy donors seem to have taken a step back as well.
Point being, a large segment of the population inside and outside no longer seems interested in supporting this group financially. Seems like an echo of the situation regarding the Will county GOP story from last week;
“I’ve gotten a lot of promises, but no checks.”
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 4:02 pm
GOPies generally try to rely on using government cash to help with campaign activities…check with Speaker Lee
Comment by Annonin' Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 4:14 pm
As soon as Griffin makes the decision who he is backing for Governor the money will start flowing in. JMO
Comment by Hard D Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 5:23 pm
Glad it’s happening to a bunch of whiny refusnics bent promoting the wealthy and elite at the expense of everyone else.
Comment by Huh? Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 5:50 pm
Isn’t there some rich guy in Florida who keeps raking in monthly contributions (at least until people discover he’s taking monthly instead of the one-time contribution they thought it was) who could lend them some dough?
Comment by West Side the Best Side Monday, Apr 19, 21 @ 6:31 pm
===As soon as Griffin makes the decision===
That’s an if, not a when.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 20, 21 @ 7:39 am