Bailey at "Gigantic" Cash Disadvantage Headed into Fall Campaign
Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) speaks to media following his GOP primary victory for Governor last month. Campaign finance reports show Bailey is at a $59.7 million dollars cash disadvantage to incumbent billionaire JB Pritzker headed into the fall campaign.
Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) may have cruised to victory in the GOP primary for governor last month, but campaign finance reports show he begins the fall campaign at a gigantic disadvantage.
Bailey raised around $8.6 million between April 1 and June 30, but $8 million of that came from billionaire paper products magnate and conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein. Bailey spent around $9.2 million in the second quarter, around $7.7 million of which was dedicated to television ads.
Bailey ended the quarter with around $364,000 cash on hand. Governor JB Pritzker, meanwhile, who had nominal Democratic competition in the primary, but spent piles of money helping Bailey and attacking Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, finished the second quarter with $60 million in the bank.
“If [Bailey] doesn’t figure out how to raise some significant money fast, this thing will get away from him,” said a longtime GOP operative who asked not to be named. “Even if Dick Uihlein writes a $50 million check, Bailey won’t be able to compete financially, but he has to find a way to put together a robust operation.”
The Pritzker campaign has already begun airing a set of attacks on Bailey. Some Republicans we talk to harken back to the 2006 gubernatorial race where Judy Baar Topinka came out of a bruising primary with no money and then-Governor Rod Blagojevich, behind a $25 million war chest (the good old days where $25 million was a lot), defined Topinka before she could ever get on TV, essentially ending the race by the summer.
Even Republican insiders who believe the poor economic circumstances and pending “red wave” could keep Bailey afloat against the divisive Pritzker know he has to be able to withstand an early onslaught from Pritzker.
“If [Bailey] lets Pritzker decide the narrative, he’s done,” said a Republican insider. “But if he can make the story in the suburbs about crime and the economy and not about guns and abortion, he has a chance to keep it close into the fall.”