On Jan. 14, it was disclosed that Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently added $90 million of his own money to his campaign for reelection. That was on top of a previously earmarked $35 million from his wallet. The news did not make much of a splash beyond political junkies; indicative, surely, of growing Illinois familiarity with the realities of a billionaire governor capable of self-financing his political future.
Still, $90 million is a heap of cash and if this is a new normal in Illinois, it’s not exactly a comfort for those who worry about the ever-growing difficulty of less affluent folk competing for high political office.
Yet more incredibly, Pritzker’s self-injection of cash widely was seen as his shoring up defenses before the arrival of competing dough from Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder and CEO of Chicago-based Citadel.
Griffin is Pritzker’s most powerful rival and a man who has declared himself “all-in” when it comes to defeating the incumbent governor. And for Griffin, who just sold a $1.15 billion stake in Citadel Securities to Sequoia Capital and Paradigm and is now said by Bloomberg to be worth as much as $27.6 billion, all-in represents a stunner of a bankroll, bigger than any casino could play.
$27.6 billion! Most Illinoisans think of billionaires as a distinct but uniform category, without pausing to consider that Griffin, one of the richest men on the planet, is worth more than 27 times your run-of-the-mill-billionaire.
Pritzker is usually said to be worth around $4 billion, enough to make him one of the richest politicians in the world, but a mere one-seventh (give or take) of what Griffin can now bring to the political table in Illinois, should he so choose. For example, if Griffin decided to spend even half of just that recent Citadel cash-out on stopping Pritzker’s reelection, that would make even Pritzker’s $90 million pale in comparison.
Few Illinoisans, we suspect, really have put this together. Unsurprisingly. These kinds of magnates waging battle for a job running a Midwestern state with more than its share of problems is hard to comprehend. But it’s now the reality, even if we might wish the cash were being spent not on political campaigns but on more philanthropic endeavors.
We respect the rights of Pritzker and Griffin, highly successful men, to spend their fortunes as they choose and to engage in ideas involving the future of our state. But here’s the other bizarre thing. While Pritzker is self-funding his campaign, Griffin’s name apparently will not be on the ballot. Rather, he is selecting a preferred candidate he intends to bankroll.
That candidate would appear to be Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, although Griffin has not definitively declared his support, saying that “I am excited that he has decided to join the race, and look forward to the opportunity to meet him and learn more about his ideas in the weeks ahead.”
Nonetheless, Irvin announced his candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a campaign video of strikingly impressive and expensive production values. Compared to the simple videos Irvin made when he was running for mayor, this one is of a whole different league when it comes to storytelling and emotional engagement. We’ve been less impressed with many past campaign videos for U.S. president.
What do we make of Irvin? It’s too early to say.
The first Black mayor of a city with a population of 180,000, a former state prosecutor and a Desert Storm veteran, he certainly looks like a viable candidate for this state’s highest office. In his video, which contains biographical details and policy positions, Irvin declares himself a direct descendant from slaves, a big-dreaming child of public housing, the product of a single mother, and a leader who understood the challenges of poverty but rose to become mayor of the city in which he grew up.
In the video, along with promoting low taxes and education over indoctrination, Irvin hits many of the tough-on-crime themes that dovetail with what Griffin has said in public about his views on the current state of his home. “Defund the police is dumb, dangerous and costs lives,” Irvin says to the camera, after touting his experience as a prosecutor putting criminals in jail.
“Every family should be safe,” he says. “Running our second-largest city, crime has gone down because the police budget has gone up.”
The three-minute commercial closes with: “We must dare to dream of an Illinois that is free, prosperous and proud enough to truly be the Land of Lincoln again.”
Pritzker’s frowning face is rendered in sepia tones. He’s linked with Mike Madigan. Griffin’s name is never mentioned.
In response, Pritzker’s backers have said that Irvin is really a lifelong Democrat making an expedient choice to improve his chances of beating Pritzker. Even if that’s true, as distinct from being a decision made by a man who genuinely has evolved, who could blame Irvin for that?
Griffin certainly appears to have found a candidate with the exact opposite of the Pritzker biography.
For his part, of course, Irvin is going to have to demonstrate that he belongs on the ballot on his own merits, not as a Griffin pawn. Those questions likely will be omnipresent on the campaign trail, and rightly so.Irvin will have to make it clear that he is his own candidate.
Griffin would be much easier for the Pritzker team to attack than Irvin, a man who has risen from challenging circumstances and whose positions could well appeal to a hefty percentage of the Black vote. The pros in the Pritzker camp will know they have to tread very carefully. It’s far easier to go after the guy with $27 billion.
It is going to be most fascinating to watch, and potentially a real race. Let’s hope it includes transparency, frankness and substantive debate about the future of a state recovering from a debilitating crisis.
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