Illinois keeps Obama fundraising above water
Monday, August 27, 2007 4:01 PM CDT
SPRINGFIELD — As political leaders were rewriting Illinois election law to help Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency, the state’s political donors were doing their part — contributing close to $7.7 million to the Illinois favorite.
That’s how much Obama has raised in his state, as of the end of June, in his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.
He is far and away Illinois’ most successful presidential fundraiser in either party, outraising fellow Democrat (and Illinois native) Hillary Rodham Clinton more than 4-to-1 in the state. He is also beating the entire combined Republican field by more than 3-to-1, the data show.
In fact, of every $3 in campaign money raised in Illinois this year for any presidential candidate, $2 of it went to Obama.
Obama’s lopsided financial support in Illinois comes at a time when the state is gaining new relevance in the presidential nomination process. Illinois has pushed its 2008 primaries up to February, after a declaration by state leaders that they wanted to help Obama.
That means the state’s large cache of voters will go to the polls before any candidate has locked up the nomination.
“Illinois Democrats have moved heaven and earth to assist Sen. Obama, and he is a fundraising machine,” said state Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Chicago-area Republican.
He still counts his former Springfield colleague as a friend but said he is troubled by the way Obama’s political and financial supporters have steamrolled across the state’s electoral landscape.
Paul Green, political scientist at Roosevelt University in Chicago, said the financial windfall for Obama is in line with the state’s tradition of using campaign contributions not just to get someone elected nationally, but also to stay on the right side of people who hold power locally — no matter how a national election turns out.
In Illinois, that means pleasing Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Sen. Dick Durbin, and a state-level Democratic Party that holds total control in Springfield. And all of those heavy hitters have lined up behind Obama.
“There’s more to it than just Obama and his ’vision.’ … It’s a strategic decision” to donate to him in Illinois, said Green. “Mayor Daley is going to be around awhile. Obama, win or lose, is going to be around awhile. So you protect your interests.”
That local political instinct is so strong in Illinois, one Clinton campaign official suggested last week that it can be considered a victory for Clinton to have raised as much as she did ($1.7 million) on Obama’s home turf.
“We’re pleasantly surprised at the support she’s received in Illinois,” said Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff.
With the Republican vote so weak in Illinois, the national GOP has virtually written off the state. So it’s not surprising that the GOP contenders have stayed under $1 million each in their Illinois fundraising. Arizona Sen. John McCain did best among the Republicans in Illinois (and was third overall), garnering about $746,000, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, with about $617,000.
According to federal law, individual donors can give no more than $2,300 per candidate for an election. They are allowed to donate for a primary election, and then again for a general election.
Raking in money
The state’s Democratic-controlled political leadership has made no pretense of even-handedness in its view of the wide field of Democratic presidential candidates.
In a speech in January, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan first proposed pushing the state’s 2008 primary elections forward, to Feb. 5.
It’s been a common move among states this year, including Missouri, but Madigan’s explanation for it was unusual in its bluntness: “Illinois will be able to mark up for Barack Obama,” said Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, drawing thunderous applause from a bipartisan audience of state lawmakers.
Obama’s popularity in Illinois has sometimes crossed party lines. For example, Dillard, the Republican state senator, created a stir earlier this year by appearing in an Obama television commercial lauding the candidate for his bipartisanship.
But Dillard now says he’s bothered by the central role that money is playing in Obama’s campaign, and in presidential politics in general.
“Money is an unhealthy thing in politics. It’s ironic that my friend Sen. Obama, who likes to campaign as a reformer, is raking in money like a craps dealer at a casino,” said Dillard. “He’s sort of stuck in the system.”
Obama supporters, though, maintain he is anathema to “the system,” and that one the biggest issues brought up by his detractors — inexperience — is actually a virtue.
“(Donald) Rumsfeld and (Dick) Cheney had all the experience in the world, and look what they did,” said Gerald Montroy, a retired Metro East attorney who has contributed $2,000 to Obama this year. “He’s smart, he’s willing to listen … I think he is a person who can bring our country back together.”
Obama and Clinton have been locked in an unprecedented national fundraising battle in which they had raised $58.6 million and $62.5 million, respectively, as of June 30, according to the FEC figures.
In all, the data show, Illinois was second only to California ($8.6 million) in its support for Obama’s campaign. And, while Clinton is the big fundraising winner in her own adopted home state of New York, the Illinois junior senator did far better in her state than she did in his. He has raised $6 million in New York, to Clinton’s $13.8 million there.
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