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Billionaire Businessman Joins Illinois Governor's Race

Billionaire entrepreneur and investor J.B. Pritzker launched his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor Thursday, framing his candidacy as one about progressive values rather than personal fortune and calling Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner a "failure."

By Rick Pearson

Billionaire entrepreneur and investor J.B. Pritzker launched his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor Thursday, framing his candidacy as one about progressive values rather than personal fortune and calling Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner a "failure."

On the first day of Pritzker's candidacy, the Rauner-backed state Republican Party also appeared to try to frame a potential 2018 matchup between the two. Though Rauner has said he could support a tax hike if Democrats approve his political and economic agenda, the Republican Party called Pritzker a tax-raising "lapdog" for powerful Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The early sparring between Pritzker and Rauner underscored the high stakes and likely high cost of the upcoming race for governor. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, has vowed to spend heavily out of his own pocket. Rauner, a wealthy former equity investor, spent tens of millions on his 2014 campaign and in December put $50 million into his re-election.

At the same time, Pritzker's fellow Democratic primary contender Chris Kennedy, a Chicago businessman from the iconic political family, said his campaign had raised $1 million since making his bid official in early February. Kennedy also put $250,100 into his own campaign last month, a move that eliminated caps on the size of campaign contributions the candidates can collect.

Two other Democratic candidates, Northwest Side Ald. Ameya Pawar and state Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston, pointedly noted Pritzker's wealth in welcoming him to the contest. Pawar sent a fundraising email to supporters titled "A billionaire enters the race," while Biss questioned whether "the future of the Democratic Party will be a vehicle for the very rich."

The early Democratic contest clearly is split. On one side are two moneyed candidates who represent the party's establishment and can use their personal wealth to compete with Rauner's deep pockets. On the other are two candidates with less personal wealth trying to appeal to progressive populist activism. The race so far reflects the latest outgrowth of the divide seen nationally among backers of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in last year's Democratic primary for president.

Pritzker is a longtime fundraiser for Democrats at the national level who twice financially backed Hillary Clinton's presidential bids. He used the first day of his campaign to try to move himself toward the progressive column and link Rauner to President Donald Trump.

"This campaign isn't about money. It's about values. It's about progressive values. That's what I've stood for my whole life. I grew up a progressive Democrat. I've fought for progressive Democratic values," he told reporters after his speech."You heard me say onstage what I believe and it's a whole lot different than Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump."

In an announcement speech of less than 14 minutes at the Chicago Park District's Grand Crossing Gymnasium on the far South Side, Pritzker recounted to a couple of hundred supporters his efforts to improve early child care and early learning for at-risk children, help build the Illinois Holocaust Museum to fight "bigotry, hatred and intolerance," endow a center on wrongful convictions, expand community health services and found the tech hub 1871.

"What do these things have in common? I identified a problem and went to work with others," Pritzker said, adding the progressive values he has been instilled with "led me to do big things that have had a lasting impact on people's lives."

In contrast, Pritzker said, "Gov. Bruce Rauner is a failure. He promised a turnaround and all we got was the runaround. He said he would stand up to the special interests and instead, he's become his own special interest."

Citing the state's historic budget stalemate, Pritzker accused Rauner of holding the state "hostage to his right-wing agenda." Rauner has made changes in state law involving collective bargaining and workers' compensation -- issues that go to the heart of Democratic allies in organized labor and civil injury attorneys -- preconditions for a tax increase and full state budget.

Pritzker also contended progressive values are "under siege" by Trump and Rauner. He called Rauner the "local partner" of Trump and said the GOP governor is "just too afraid to stand up" to the president. Attempts to link Rauner to Trump are expected to be a constant theme for Democrats in the 2018 contest.

The state Republican Party, which Rauner has heavily subsidized, hit back at Pritzker early and often Thursday with several missives that labeled Pritzker "a pawn" and "Madigan's billionaire." It was consistent with a longtime GOP theme in Illinois, trying to tarnish Democratic candidates by seeking to link them to Madigan, who is Rauner's chief political nemesis.

The state GOP released what it said was a recording of Pritzker speaking at a Chicago event hosted by state Sen. Kimberly Lightford of Maywood on March 21. In the recording, Pritzker discusses how returning the state's personal income tax rate to 5 percent from the current 3.75 percent "doesn't get you everything you need, but it's a good way toward, you know, toward getting real revenue in the state."

"One can only imagine the devastation Mike Madigan could do with a lapdog billionaire at his side. Pritzker puts the insiders first and the taxpayers last," Kirsten Kukowski, a state GOP spokeswoman, said in a statement.

At his kickoff event, Pritzker told reporters, "I think that we ought to start with the millionaires and billionaires and make sure that they're paying taxes first, and then we're not going to be talking about raising taxes on middle-class families until we take care of that problem."

But to impose such a tax would require voter approval of a state constitutional amendment to allow for a graduated income tax rate to replace the state's current flat tax. That's something unlikely to appear on a statewide ballot until 2020 at the earliest and therefore wouldn't address Illinois' immediate budget problems.

The state GOP released another recording of Pritzker from the same Chicago event in which the Democrat said, "so let's just talk about this flat income tax, because we're not going to be able to turn it into a millionaire's tax, a fair tax. It's going to take us three years."

Pritzker contended Rauner has backed a Republican legislative proposal that, if it met his preconditions, would boost the state personal income tax rate to 4.99 percent "and he wants to raise it on everyone."

Pritzker is a founder of Pritzker Group, a private investment firm. Forbes estimates his wealth at $3.4 billion.

It is the second time Pritzker has made a bid for public office. In 1998 he lost a primary bid for the Democratic nomination for Congress to Jan Schakowsky, who remains the officeholder in the North Shore's 9th District.

But Pritzker has long been involved in politics. In the 1990s, he founded a national group aimed at attracting voters under age 40 to the Democratic Party. In 2008, he was a national co-chair of Clinton's presidential campaign against then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

In the 2008 campaign, Pritzker found his sister Penny backing Obama's presidential bid. After he won, she became his commerce secretary.

In 2016, Pritzker donated millions of dollars to Priorities USA, a group that heavily backed Clinton in her unsuccessful bid against Trump.

(c)2017 the Chicago Tribune

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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