Update on Campaign Finance
Cross posted from ICPR's blog, The Race is On:
Some numbers from the filings:
* In the 49th Senate district, incumbent Deanna Demuzio reported another $230K in receipts, mostly from the Senate Dems. Her opponent, Sam McCann, lags in cash but has been getting regular infusions from Republican leadership. This race will likely be the first to cross the $1 Million mark.
* In the 40th Senate District, appointed incumbent Toi Hutchinson holds a fundraising lead over challenger Todd Baumgartner, who reported $20K in receipts since yesterday, mostly from Republican leadership. This race holds a tenuous hold on second place for most fundraising in a Senate contest; the 43rd, between AJ WIlhelmi and Cedra Crenshaw, is close behind.
* House races are hard to rank because Jay Hoffman is sitting on such a huge pile; the disclosure reports do not say how much of that he plans to spend. Challenger Dwight Kay has been bringing in money at a rapid clip; he may never catch Hoffman dollar-for-dollar, but it appears he'll have enough to get his message out. His latest reports show another $16K, mostly from Tom Cross and affiliates.
* Charles Landers, the Democrat seeking to replace retiring Betsy Hannig (and, before her, Gary Hannig) reports a whopping $270K in receipts this month alone, largely from the Democratic Party of Illinois. Republican Wayne Rosenthal has about half as much cash; he's relying on Tom Cross and the HRO for the bulk of his money. These candidates are more likely to spend what they raise; if they do, this is poised to be the most expensive House contest.
* In the 35th open House race, Republican Barbara Bellar filed a paper A1 showing a $15,000 donation from Kenneth Griffin of Citadel Investment Group. As we noted earlier, Griffin's been giving to many candidates, but this donation may have slipped under the radar since it was filed on paper. With this donation, Bellar will need to start filing all reports electronically. Appointed Democrat Bill Cunningham holds a slight cash advantage in this low-dollar race.
* The pro- and con- Kilbride committees have been fairly silent. No on Kilbride shows no receipts; the two pro-Kilbride committees (Vote Yes Tom Kilbride Supreme Court and the Kilbride Campaign Committee) show a total of $86K (One pro-Kilbride committee has filed a Pre-Election; none of the others have). The Illinois Civil Justice League today reported $100K from American Justice Partnership, which one might assume is headed toward that 3rd District retention race.
* Cook County Assessor candidate Joe Berrios has been sitting on a lot of money for years. He's also raised a fair bit this month, and we find he has reported $517K for the General Election, not counting some investments. Independent candidate Forest Claypool has reported raising more in recent weeks, and the combined total is now over $1 Million.
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