By Alysha Khan<\/p>\n
While Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s failure to win reelection outright has dominated the headlines, equally interesting is a look at the money all five candidates raised in the final weeks leading up the election.
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To win the mayoral election, one of the candidates need to get more than 50 percent of the vote. But everyone failed to achieve a simple majority, including Emanuel, who raised more than nine times the campaign contributions that Garcia collected.<\/p>\n
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A Chicago Tribune poll\u00a0put\u00a0Garcia 25 points behind Emanuel the week before election day and in a city where incumbent mayors have historically dominated,\u00a0so it was hard to imagine Garcia winning outright.\u00a0The real victory? How all four of Emanuel’s opponents combined to win an aggregate majority.<\/p>\n
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“This election was a referendum on Rahm Emanuel and the outcome of that referendum was that the majority of Chicagoans didn’t want him to continue as mayor,” said Richard Simpson, former alderman and professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.<\/p>\n
The campaign said it\u00a0raised $15\u00a0million during the entire campaign – $2 million of which was raised between January 1 and election day on February 24. Of the other four candidates, only businessman\u00a0Willie Wilson\u00a0raised similar amounts in 2015.<\/p>\n
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*Note: Willie Wilson donated\u00a0$2,055,000 to his own campaign.<\/em><\/p>\n Among Emanuel’s donors were a number of CEOs and presidents, while Garcia’s featured more retirees and educators.<\/p>\n [field name=”mayoralfinance4″]<\/p>\n For each\u00a0vote, Emanuel raised\u00a0$72, compared to\u00a0Garcia $9.<\/p>\n [field name=”mayoralfinance5″]<\/p>\n “You don’t have to match an opponent dollar for dollar,” Simpson said. “What you have to have is enough money to be able to get your message out and apparently the little over $1 million Chuy Garcia raised was enough.”<\/p>\n During the last six weeks, the businessman poured $2 million into this campaign, from his own money and his company, Omar Medical Supply, Inc.<\/p>\n [field name=”mayoralfinance6″]<\/p>\n The law firm Orun & Roth LLC – where Fioretti is Of Counsel – gave\u00a0a $130,000 loan to the campaign and contributed an additional $4,500 as a contribution. Overall, 58 percent of Fioretti’s contribution came from this one law firm.<\/p>\n [field name=”mayoralfinance7″]<\/p>\n Want to know more? Medill Reports’ Ezra Kaplan has more on the money behind the runoff.<\/p>\nEmanuel\u00a0had more donors with deeper pockets than Garcia<\/h1>\n
But Garcia got more bang for his buck<\/h1>\n
Also interesting: While Emanuel\u00a0raised money,\u00a0Willie\u00a0Wilson just dipped into his own bank account<\/h1>\n
And Bob Fioretti has to pay back more than half his 2015 contributions<\/h2>\n