SPRINGFIELD – Governor JB Pritzker, running for a second term on his own money, makes it possible for Democrats in three crucial campaigns to run on his money too.
On Sept. 23, his campaign committee transferred $1 million to Attorney General Kwame Raoul and $500,000 to Supreme Court candidate Elizabeth Rochford.
On Sept. 29, the Pritzker committee transferred $500,000 to Supreme Court candidate Mary O’Brien.
Republican Tom DeVore, who's loaned his campaign for AG nearly $300,000 and received mostly individual contributions of less than $1,000, raised the issue of Raoul's independence at a debate Monday in heated exchanges over the controversial SAFE-T Act and Pritzker's pandemic-related executive orders.
Challenging those executive orders, including mask mandates, has been the foundation of DeVore's campaign.
"The kids of this state will never recover from your failure to defend them against the Governor," DeVore said.
"You don't just arbitrarily sit back and say, 'well the legislature passed it, the governor signed it and I have a duty to defend it,'" DeVore went on. "That's what Attorney Generals do whose top two contributors to their campaigns are in fact the executive and the legislature. If you're representing everybody equally, you have a duty to the people to raise these issues."
Since 2018, Pritzker's campaign committee has given Raoul's committee $3.94 million.
Pritzker, whose net worth is derived from the Hyatt hotel fortune and estimated at $3.6 billion, has given his own committee $145 million in the last two years, and $171.5 million for his campaign in 2018.
He has delivered more campaign cash to the Democrat Supreme Court candidates and Raoul than other donors could deliver them in weeks.
In transfers and contributions of $1,000 or more, Raoul received $359,950 in two weeks before the Pritzker transfer and $85,500 in two weeks after it.
Rochford received $492,990 in two weeks before and $278,000 after. O’Brien received $208,941.33 in two weeks before and $171,000 after.
O’Brien opposes Republican Michael Burke, who runs as incumbent by appointment in the Second Judicial District.
The district consists entirely of Chicago suburbs outside Cook County.
O’Brien and Burke won the primary without opposition.
Rochford opposes Mark Curran in the Third District, which consists of suburbs and a small rural region to the southwest.
Third District incumbent Robert Carter took the seat by appointment and stated from the start he wouldn’t run this year. He replaced James Kilbride, the first Illinois Supreme Court judge ever to lose the job by denial of retention.
Seven candidates ran for Kilbride’s vacancy in the primary.
Among 96,695 Democrat voters, 42,955 chose Rochford over two opponents.
Among 107,115 Republican voters, 31,628 chose Curran over three opponents.