Democratic businessman Chris Kennedy entered the Illinois governor’s race Wednesday, assailing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner for "destroying" the state’s economy and failing to lead state government out of its financial mess.
"I think Gov. Rauner’s taken a state government budget problem and turned it into economic chaos for the rest of the state. I don’t think it needed to go that way. And I think it’s fixable," said Kennedy, 53, the son of the slain Democratic liberal icon Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.
The announcement came more than a year ahead of the March 2018 primary and signals a growing desire among some Democrats to begin an early, extensive and expensive campaign to decide upon a finalist to take on Rauner, a wealthy former private equity investor who has used his own resources in an effort to rebuild the state GOP.
But as Rauner seeks to revitalize the Republican brand in Illinois, particularly by tarnishing veteran Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, it is the current-day value of the decades-old Kennedy legacy that could be put to a test in what’s expected to become a contentious election taking place a half-century after his father was assassinated while seeking the presidency.
Chris Kennedy to run for Illinois governor
Background on Chicago businessman Chris Kennedy, who has officially filed paperwork to join the Democratic race for Illinois governor. Feb. 8, 2017.
Background on Chicago businessman Chris Kennedy, who has officially filed paperwork to join the Democratic race for Illinois governor. Feb. 8, 2017.
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In keeping with the governor’s long-term, multi-million dollar strategy of seeking to discredit Democrats and erode their power by linking them to Madigan, Rauner’s campaign team sent out a fundraising email that called Kennedy "a pawn of Mike Madigan." The Rauner-backed GOP also referred to Kennedy as a Madigan "lap dog."
Kennedy, who oversaw the family’s previous Merchandise Mart ownership and now its Wolf Point skyscraper construction development along the Chicago River, called the attacks "desperate" and "pathetic."
"I think it’s an insult to me, an insult to the entire Kennedy family and an insult to the voters of Illinois to make a statement like that that anybody’s going to believe," he told the Chicago Tribune.
"I think Gov. Rauner has spent his entire time blaming others and not leading. Even now, as the state Senate tries to find a compromise on the budget, Gov. Rauner remains on the sideline. We don’t know what his intentions are. And that’s not right. He’s in the big chair. He ought to lead. Otherwise, he’s one (term) and done."
Following an event in Normal, Rauner did not address Kennedy’s candidacy when reporters asked about it.
"I am very focused, like a laser, on getting a balanced budget with structural changes to our system, but it’s broken and been broken for a long time. And we need to compromise with each other. We need to listen to each other. And I’m very focused on that. I’m really not paying attention to politics," the governor said.
Kennedy, however, contended it was intransigence Rauner has shown in seeking his economic agenda that has damaged the state in a historic stalemate that has left Illinois without a full-year budget for 19 months.
Campaign ad: Chris Kennedy is running for governor
Campaign ad: Chris Kennedy is running for governor.
Campaign ad: Chris Kennedy is running for governor.
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"Negotiation is not surrender. Compromise is not a sign of weakness. In fact, it’s a show of strength," Kennedy said.
The Democrat said the state’s lack of a budget was a "uniquely Illinois issue and it’s a uniquely Gov. Rauner issue" due to the governor’s insistence on changes in laws involving workers’ compensation, collective bargaining, term limits and the politically independent drawing of legislative districts.
Where he fits in race
Kennedy previously had considered bids for statewide office, only to abandon them. In his current effort, he put together a campaign team prior to the announcement.
He’s the second Democratic governor candidate to register a campaign committee, joining Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th. Several others are weighing a bid, including another wealthy Chicago businessman, J.B. Pritzker, as well as U.S. Reps. Cheri Bustos of Moline and Robin Kelly of Matteson, and state Sens. Daniel Biss of Evanston, Kwame Raoul of Chicago and Andy Manar of Bunker Hill.
Some Democrats looking at candidacies by Kennedy and perhaps Pritzker are considering potential benefits of fielding a wealthy challenger to Rauner who could largely self fund a campaign and provide a counterbalance to the governor’s deep pockets.
In a show of strength shortly before the end of last year, Rauner put $50 million of his fortune into his re-election campaign bank account, and political aides said there was more money to follow.
Kennedy said Rauner will need "a lot more than $50 million to paper over the mess he has made."
Asked if he was willing to self-fund his campaign, Kennedy said, "I’ll put my money where my mouth is. I’ll have the resources to compete."
"But it shouldn’t be the size of somebody’s wallet that determines who’s the next governor of the state of Illinois. It should be the breadth of their ideas and the strength of their vision and the depth of their commitment and Gov. Rauner fails on all three areas," he said.
State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, a top Madigan lieutenant, said there were "pluses and minuses" of having a wealthy Democratic candidate run against Rauner.
"The minus is you take an important issue off the table if you have one white guy able to fund against another white guy able to fund. On the other hand, if you can fund, that’s a plus. So we will see how they all play out and what their individual strengths and weaknesses are," said Currie, who is currently not backing a candidate for governor.
Biss dismissed the need for fielding a wealthy challenger to Rauner, saying Democrats need someone "who can draw a strong contrast with the governor." Biss headed a federal super political action committee last fall that raised more than $10 million to run ads seeking to link Rauner to President Donald Trump that received donations from Kennedy and Pritzker.
Biss and Pritzker, a long-time Democratic donor who made a failed bid for Congress in 1998, each said separately that they were seriously considering a run for the nomination for governor. In December, the Rauner-funded state Republican Party launched preemptive automated calls against a Pritzker bid.
Business background
Born on the Fourth of July 1963, the eighth of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, Chris Kennedy is well known in Chicago business and civic circles.
After graduating from Boston College in 1986, he moved to Downstate Decatur to learn about food production at Archer Daniels Midland, working first at a small grain elevator buying corn and soybeans from farmers. He also was an ADM runner at the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Perhaps most prominently, Kennedy served as president of Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., rising to the post after starting as a research analyst there in 1987. He is chairman of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc., named after his grandfather, and is responsible for the Kennedy Family’s real estate holdings and billion-dollar development project at Wolf Point.
After stepping down from the Merchandise Mart in 2011, Kennedy and wife Sheila started the nonprofit Top Box Foods with the goal of bringing high-quality, low-cost food to needy families in Chicago. Kennedy has said the nonprofit was an outgrowth of his anti-hunger efforts which began three decades ago and included chairing the board of the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
Kennedy’s most high-profile public role came as chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, appointed in 2009 by then-Gov. Pat Quinn following a scandal over school admission practices. But Kennedy also faced controversy during his U. of I. tenure, which ended in 2015. That included a faculty uprising over a president hired by Kennedy and other trustees. That president, Michael Hogan, ultimately resigned.
Kennedy also has served on boards of several privately held companies, as well as non-profit organizations and civic boards, including the City Club of Chicago, the Executives’ Club of Chicago, the Economic Club of Chicago and The Commercial Club of Chicago.
The road ahead
Given the prospect of two wealthy businessmen atop the November 2018 Illinois ballot, Kennedy sought to separate himself from Rauner’s background in acquisitions, mergers and finance.
"I’ve spent my whole career building things up. I made money by paying other people. Gov. Rauner has done just the opposite. He’s made money by tearing things down, breaking them apart. He’s made money by firing people," Kennedy said.
"I think it’s important that people have drive and ambition and intelligence, but any coach, any board of directors, any employer, any employee will tell you the most important thing is heart. And, Gov. Rauner appears to be heartless," he said, noting reduced funding for social service safety-net programs due to the budget impasse.
In making his formal announcement via a YouTube video, Kennedy echoed some of the populist themes he tried out in exploring a candidacy, such as promoting the "American Dream" and Illinois as a place of opportunity for all, including young people.
On Wednesday, Kennedy touched on a subject from his July speech to the Illinois delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. He contended that of the thousands of companies he dealt with in locating them in the Merchandise Mart, "not one of them ever asked me about tort reform or workers’ comp or the manner in which we carve up our legislative districts or even term limits" — all items that have been a part of Rauner’s agenda.
But Kennedy’s summer tryout in Philadelphia got off to an inauspicious start when he wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions about his potential candidacy and ridiculed them for following him into an elevator after his talk.
"I don’t have to address you. Please leave the elevator and let me go to my meeting. Please do that. Have some decency," Kennedy said. "What have you become? Please, please."
During the two-and-a-half-minute announcement video, Kennedy’s campaign makes five references to Chicago Tribune stories that have featured him since 2011. In three cases, the video displays words or headlines that don’t match the published stories.
For example, in an August 2012 story about Kennedy’s non-profit food venture, the campaign video uses the headlines "Ambitious food project" and "On a mission to fight hunger." The first headline appeared on the web version of the story; the second did not appear in either the web or print versions.
Kennedy campaign consultant Eric Adelstein said the video "is an amalgamation of Chris Kennedy’s record in the fight against hunger and as a businessman creating jobs."
Chicago Tribune’s Monique Garcia contributed from Springfield and Kim Geiger contributed from Normal.
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