CHICAGO – The question everyone interested in Illinois’ conservative politics is wondering is “Where’s Dick Uihlein?” and “Who’s the key influencer that is apparently steering Uihlein’s political investments away from Darren Bailey’s bid to oust JB Pritzker?”
It’s a fair question. Conservative gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey is fighting hard among the state’s grassroots to win support against Pritzker, who is nationally recognized as a Leftist COVID tyrant and a radical criminal comforter – exactly the kind of political figure Uihlein would be happy to defeat.
But nothing from Uihlein?
After all, Uihlein has been writing checks this summer to certain, specific House races, one specific Chamber leader, two statewide races (including Tom DeVore and Dan Brady), and a couple of countywide races.
But all of those campaign donations added together come nowhere near the $15 Million Uihlein gave a month ago to radio talk show host Dan Proft, the Chairman and Treasurer of the People Who Play By the Rules PAC. People Who Play By the Rules is a political action committee that Proft runs from Naples Florida (or, at least that’s the PAC’s listed address). The $15 Million Uihlein gave Proft July 26 was preceded by $5 Million July 5th.
Still, with time running out, Darren Bailey’s campaign isn’t yet on the Uihlein donation list. It is noticeable that the Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie got an interesting amount of nearly $150,000 from Uihlein in July while House Republican Leader Jim Durkin scored zilch from Uihlein.
Durkin and Proft have been feuding for years and Proft used Uihlein funds to defeat Durkin-backed candidates over the past ten years. At the same time, Uihlein wrote checks directly to the 66th and 53rd District House races.
So far, here’s the list the Illinois Board of Elections website shows that Uihlein saw worthy of his funding, up through last week …
So where is Mr. Uihlein now? And why isn’t he donating directly to Darren Bailey?
