Money, momentum off the charts in primary
More Democrats turned out to choose their party’s nominee for governor on Tuesday than they did in any other gubernatorial primary in the past four decades.
And J. B. Pritzker spent roughly $ 122.02 of his own money for each of the votes he received — but surprisingly, that’s not a primary record.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s spending is a bit tougher to figure, since he has also taken in big contributions from wealthy friends and spent some of his money helping other candidates.
But the numbers available suggest he is in the same ballpark — and skybox — as Pritzker, spending somewhere around $ 124.66 per vote.
Money and energy are what drive elections. And the numbers suggest a fair amount of both were at play on Tuesday.
The 1,269,161 Democrats who cast ballots in the sixway primary that Pritzker won eclipsed the 1,252,516 who turned out in 2002 to weigh in on Rod Blagojevich’s primary battle against Paul Vallas and Roland Burris.
The last time more Democrats came out to vote in a gubernatorial nominating contest was 1976, when 1,430,117 voted in the Dan Walker- Paul Simon race. But back then, Illinois races for governor were still held in presidential election years, which likely helped drive up turnout.
The Republican turnout Tuesday didn’t break any records. The 703,110 voters falls short of the 819,710 who turned out four years ago in the GOP primary Bruce Rauner won against Kirk Dillard, Bill Brady and Dan Rutherford. But it beats out the 667,485 who voted in the seven- way contest that Bill Brady won four years earlier in 2010.
As for money, Pritzker reached into his pocket for $ 70 million and is believed to have spent most of it. He got 573,679 votes. That breaks down to $ 122.02 per vote.
Rauner’s campaign reported spending at least $ 45,040,091.12 between the beginning of 2016 and the end of last year. Those are the most u p - t o - d a t e n u m b e r s for actual expenditures. They don’t include the crucial first three months of this year.
But if all of those expenditures are considered geared toward his own election, it would come out to $ 124.66 for each of the 361,301 votes he received through Tuesday night.
But during that same period, Rauner received big contributions from the hedgefund operator Ken Griffin, the state’s richest man. And Rauner also used some of his money to help other candi- dates, such as Republican Comptroller Leslie Munger, who ultimately lost her failed re- election bid in 2016.
And obviously, his pervote total will rise once his 2018 spending is included.
But as deep as Pritzker’s and Rauner’s pockets are, neither come close to the record set by millionaire investor M. Blair Hull in 2004.
Hull is the political footnote for the rich- guy candidate who got the worst return on his investment.
He spent roughly $ 30 million of his own fortune on his failed 2004 U. S. Senate bid. That’s about $ 223.59 a vote for the 134,173 ballots that put him in third place on the Democratic side.
Barack Obama won the primary and general election.
Hull never ran again, although he still spends his money to help and hurt other candidates.
As for Pritzker and Rauner, they’d better hope they don’t have to keep spending at the rate they already have been.
It could get even more costly.
A total of 3,504,970 ballots were cast for the Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the 2014 general election.
To win a majority based on that number of voters, a candidate would need 1,752,486 votes ( 50 percent plus 1).
At even $ 122.02 per vote, that comes out to $ 213,838,341.72.
That’s more than $ 213 million for each of them.