With the semi-annual campaign finance disclosure reports trickling in, we’ve already had a chance to see how the Republicans running for Cook County Board president are doing.
Though former state Sen. Roger Keats has the endorsements of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Daily Herald, he’s far behind Chicago police officer John Garrido in fundraising.
For the reporting period (July 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2009) Garrido raised $26,439, while Keats’ campaign brought in $18,624.
And Garrido’s campaign budget is looking a bit cozier than Keats’. Garrido has $21,278 and change in the bank, compared to $9,311 and change for Keats.
The Garrido campaign is pretty pleased with the reports.
“What it basically means for the campaign is what we’ve been saying: People are tired of the same politicians expecting different results,” says Garrido campaign adviser Robert Lee.
Garrido has worked hard to get his message out to county voters, Lee says.
“From day one this campaign has been about outworking everybody. As john says, this election is not a birthright for him, and he’s going to have to work for every vote he gets and he’s had to work for everything in his career that he’s got this far,” Lee says.
Garrido has accused Keats, currently wheelchair-bound as he recovers from back surgery, of not campaigning. Indeed, Keats hasn’t had a single fundraiser. He’s relied on small donations from friends in Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth and other North Shore towns. He’s purposely laid low until January.
Anyway, he says, money doesn’t matter in a Cook County Republican primary.
“I hate to say it’s somewhat irrelevant … for us, in this race, a Republican primary with 150,000 people, it doesn’t take much, “ he says. “It isn’t a money race. I don’t like spending big money in primaries.”
He says his experience in knowing where voters are – as well as having the endorsements of the major party organizations and media – will drive him to victory on Feb. 2.
To put the GOP fundraising in perspective, Democrat candidate Alderman Toni Preckwinkle has raised more than $100,000 since January 1.
Here some notables from the D-2 forms:
Garrido’s largest donor is his father, John Garrido, Sr., who donated nearly $60,000.
His next largest donor is Lynn Properties, LLC, of Portage, Wisc., which gave $5,000.
Keats’ donor base is primarily from the North Shore, including four donations from Wilmette, seven from Winnetka, three from Glencoe, two from Kenilworth and Glenview, and one each from Northbrook and Northfield, to the west.
Warren Batts, chairman of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System donated $500. A donor listed as Jon Pritzker - his address is register to the same address as the Pritzker family’s Tawani Enterprises - donated $500.
But we can't find any other records of "Jon" Pritzker. James Pritzker, the CEO of Tawani and namesake of the Pritzker Military Library, works at that address, and is one of the lone Pritzkers to donate to Republican causes. We're working on finding if there was a typo in the D-2.
UPDATE: Keats says there is indeed a typo. The donor is J.N. Pritzker, aka James Pritzker.