NPR (AUDIO): Pritzker Breaks Campaign Finance Record, Annoys Illinois With $80 Million Of Ads

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There’s a new record in campaign finance.

Democratic billionaire J.B. Pritzker has given his own campaign for Illinois governor more than any other self-financed candidate in U.S. history. An heir to the Hyatt franchise, Pritzker has now given his campaign $161.5 million. This is not adjusted for inflation, but he is closing in on that, too. The previous record for self-financing a campaign was set by Meg Whitman in her failed 2010 bid for California governor, who gave her campaign $144 million of her own money.

Campaign finance records show Pritzker has spent about $80 million on digital and TV advertising so far, that have ranged in topics from casting Republican incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner as a failed governor to declaring his love of puppies. …

“It’s just distressing where you see these figures and I just feel like it makes people think that their democracy really isn’t for them anymore,” says Jay Young, who leads Common Cause Illinois — a nonpartisan government watchdog group — has been tracking the Pritzker-Rauner money fight.

Young says Illinois seems to be setting up a perpetual cycle in future elections; that it’s going to take another independently wealthy candidate to take on incumbents who are already rich.

“I’m hoping that it doesn’t end up that the only field that we see from now going forward is billionaires, but sadly that’s the way we’ve been trending.”