CHICAGO - Crain's Greg Hinz reports that Tuesday of this week New Jersey Governor Chris Christie met with thirty of Chicago's (and the world's for that matter) deepest pockets to promote the Republican Governors Association.
The host of the gathering was Chicago-based hedge fund investor Ken Griffin, the 43 year old head of Citadel. Forbes lists him as the fifth-richest Chicagoan and the 149th richest American, with assets of approximately $2.3 billion.
Since money is the lifeblood of politics and political movements, and where big investors put their money breeds more interest and funds from fellow donors, we thought maybe you'd be interested in knowing just who Ken Griffin supports and where his political donations go.
Between Griffin and his wife Ann (who is also a successful hedge fund manager in her own right), the two have invested over $3 million into political campaigns of both Democrats and Republicans.
During one week alone in the month running up to the 2010 election, Griffin wrote $25,000 checks each to six House Republican candidates, a $20,000 check to Republican Senate candidate Cedra Crenshaw, five-digit checks to Illinois House and Senate Republican organizations, $225,000 to GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady. He also wrote a $100,000 to Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel.
In the past, he's been equally generous to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and also contributed to impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2003. Then in December 2010, Griffin gave $500,000 to the Stand for Children campaign, which credits itself with passing legislation that limited teacher strike options within the Chicago Public School system.
His most recent Illinois-focused donation listed on the Illinois State Board of Elections website was in July 2011, when he gave $10,000 to the Illinois Republican Party.
But Griffin is equally charitable towards national political groups such as Republican Bush advisor Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and the Republican Governors' Association. In 2010 alone, both Griffin and his wife Anne wrote checks to Rove's group for $250,000 each, and Griffin gave $665,000 to the RGA.
