Kennedy Blows Spending Caps In Governor's Race With $250K Campaign Fund Donation

By aaroncynic in News on Mar 27, 2017 5:31PM

The 2018 race for governor in Illinois is already off to an expensive start.

Chris Kennedy, an Illinois businessman and son of Robert F. Kennedy, blew the spending caps for the gubernatorial election Friday by donating $250,100 to his campaign fund, the Tribune reported Monday morning.

According to state law, spending limits on campaigns are lifted after any candidate gives themselves more than $250,000. The standard limit for an individual is $5,600 per candidate per election cycle, and $11,100 for corporations and unions.

By far, Kennedy is not the biggest spender. Gov. Bruce Rauner already handed himself a tidy sum of $50 million in December, but that did not effect the rule since it occurred last year.

Here’s the breakdown of the near $53 million current gubernatorial candidates already have in their campaign coffers, via the Illinois Sunshine Foundation, which tracks campaign donations and spending.

Governor Bruce Rauner: $50,842,485.51
Senator Daniel Biss: $1,357,228.10
J.B. Pritzker (exploratory committee) $200,000.00
Chris Kennedy: $322,700.00
Alderman Ameya Pawar: $158,042.15
Alexander Paterakis: $5,000.00

Information for Madison County School Superintendent Bob Daiber, who has also announced his candidacy, was not immediately available.

Ironically, both State Senator Daniel Biss and North Side alderman Ameya Pawar took the opportunity to criticize the already incredible amount of money in the cycle in fundraising emails over the weekend.

“This is great news for money and the machine — which means it’s terrible news for Illinois,” wrote Biss, according to Capitol Fax. “This is more of what we DON’T need — the rich and powerful exploiting loopholes in the law to maintain their hold on our state government.”

“Now three super-wealthy candidates have dug into their pockets and pledged over $50 million to run big money campaigns to buy themselves an election,” Pawar said.