Richard Uihlein, another billionaire GOP megadonor, saw much better returns for his buy-in to state Sen. Darren Bailey’s winning campaign, at a rate of about $38 per vote.
Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin speaks at the University of Chicago in May. The billionaire hedge funder saw his preferred candidate in the Illinois Republican primary for governor lose big on Tuesday. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
As a billionaire hedge fund titan, Ken Griffin has certainly taken some losses while amassing Illinois’ largest fortune, but he’s probably not used to the massive hit he took on election night.
Griffin poured $50 million into Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s campaign, only to see his pick for the Republican nomination for governor finish a distant third Tuesday at a cost of more than $400 per vote — the worst political investment in Illinois history, according to a Sun-Times analysis.
Irvin funneled some of the Citadel founder’s cash to the campaigns of other candidates on their statewide slate — a group recruited by political operatives tied to millionaire ex-Gov. Bruce Rauner — but the bulk of Griffin’s money, nearly $48.7 million, remained stacked behind Irvin.
After about six months of dodging questions about his conservative bonafides, Irvin on Tuesday was outvoted nearly four to one by the far-right winner, state Sen. Darren Bailey of downstate Louisville.
With 99% of precincts reporting by Wednesday afternoon, Irvin’s vote total sat at 116,549, or about $417.61 of Griffin’s cash per ballot.
That’s almost twice as expensive as Illinois’ previous per-vote spending record. Millionaire investor M. Blair Hull squandered $30 million on his third-place finish in the 2004 Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat, or about $223.59 for each of the 134,173 ballots he earned.
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