IL-5 Fundraising

Progress Illinois is tracking the amounts here

The biggest surprise is O’Connor who is raising next to nothing.  Apparently hoping Daley or Rahm would win the race for him isn’t working out too well.

As I told you before the reports were released, Fritchey has done extremely well since January 5th and now has almost $100,000 more since the first reporting period for him.  He’s behind Feigenholtz by $200,000 total, but $100,000 without loans.  Quigley has reported about $350,000 and Geoghagen and Wheelan are coming in at $250,000.
The question is how much money will determine the outcome here.  Over the air television is largely expensive and hard to effectively utilize given the expected small turnout and low attention being paid to the race.  Cable buys can help and can target the dollars to the District only in most cases.  However, the number of voters and who is likely to show up means it’s still hit or miss.  Trying to drag people out ot the polls is more important than getting vague name recognition.

Making it more complicated is the labor split with SEIU going with Feigenholtz, while most of the other unions have gone with Fritchey.  The issue is that SEIU tends to provide the best support on the ground compared to other unions so that is almost a wash in some sense if not a slight advantage to Feigenholtz.