Wealthy private equity specialist Bruce Rauner continues to lead the 4-way Republican gubernatorial primary race in one key metric: money.
The Rauner campaign announced Thursday it had raised more than $4 million in the fourth quarter from over 1,500 donations. However, the total includes $1 million contributed from the candidate himself to the campaign.
While Rauner is first out of the gate with fourth quarter numbers for 2013, he is expected by many to top his challengers in the fundraising department.
Despite leading in the polls at various times last year, Bill Brady—who lost to Pat Quinn in 2010 by about 32,000 votes—reported raising only $66,000 in the third quarter of 2013.
State Senator Kirk Dillard has had fundraising problems in the past, losing a key fundraiser from his campaign late last year, and reporting slightly more than $300,000 at the end of the third quarter of 2013.
State Treasurer Dan Rutherford did a bit better, raising over $337,000 in the same period, but with $1.2 million in the bank.
On the other hand, Democrat Pat Quinn has collected $2.9 million through Sept. 30th of last year for his re-election bid, outperforming all of his Republican challengers combined.
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Rauner donated substantial sums to his own campaign throughout the year, including $500,000 in November and $249,000 in March.
