Illinois' Richest Man Donates $2.5 Million To Bruce Rauner's Gubernatorial Campaign

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 14, 2014 3:00PM

Citadel LLC founder and CEO Kenneth Griffin is the richest man in Chicago. (Photo via Citadel LLC's website.)

Shock waves reverberated across Illinois' political landscape Friday with the news that Kenneth Griffin, CEO of investment firm Citadel LLC and the richest man in the state, donated $2.5 million he just happened to have laying around to Bruce Rauner's carpetbagging "Hammer and Shake" gubernatorial campaign. The contribution makes Griffin the second largest donor to Rauner's campaign, behind Rauner himself.

Griffin's donation was recorded by the Illinois Board of Elections on June 11 and he's donated a total of $3.6 million to Rauner's campaign, including the use of Griffin's private airplane for Rauner's campaign use valued at $71,000 and counting.

You're probably asking, as we did when we read the news, "isn't there a law limiting campaign contributions in Illinois politics?" Why, yes, there is. Rauner, however, found a loophole in that law. By donating at least $250,000 of his own money to his campaign, Rauner was able to trigger a clause in the law lifting the limits to all candidates in the gubernatorial race. Rauner's initial self-contribution was for $249,000, just below the trigger mark and intended to hamstring his Republican primary opponents from raising money as long as possible. Rauner later funneled another $500,000 of his own wealth to his campaign, removing the caps.

Rauner put $6 million of his own money into his successful Republican primary campaign, a state record for a governors race. He's raised $8.3 million since securing the GOP nomination; over $1.5 million has come from his own campaign.

It's been clear from the moment Rauner announced his candidacy that he would use his wealth and connections to outspend his opponents in the primary and November general election. Gov. Pat Quinn is lucky at this point he didn't face a primary challenge which allowed him to sit on his campaign war chest. Quinn currently is trailing in fundraising, having amassed $1.3 million since the March primary.