美国国家公共电台 NPR Pritzker Breaks Campaign Finance Record, Annoys Illinois With $80 Million Of Ads

Pritzker Breaks Campaign Finance Record, Annoys Illinois With $80 Million Of Ads

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It's official. J.B. Pritzker has contributed more money to his own campaign than any other candidate in history. The Democrat¹ is running for governor in Illinois. The record had been held by Meg Whitman in her failed run for California governor in 2010. Pritzker, a billionaire, has given his campaign $161.5 million so far. This is not adjusted for inflation, though he's closing in on that record, too. From WBEZ in Chicago, Tony Arnold reports on what all that money has meant for the race.

TONY ARNOLD, BYLINE²: A lot of Pritzker's campaign money has gone toward advertising³. And normally this would be the part of the story where you would hear a montage of those ads, maybe the one where Pritzker ties his Republican opponent incumbent⁴ Governor Bruce Rauner to President Trump⁵, or the one where Pritzker touts⁶ his philanthropy, or even how Pritzker likes puppies. And, yeah, that was a real ad. Apparently⁷, these are all helping⁸ Pritzker's campaign. He's enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls over Rauner but perhaps at a cost. So in the spirit of Jimmy Kimmel's celebrities⁹ reading mean tweets, here are some NPR producers reading tweets of potential voters who have maybe seen one too many J.B. Pritzker commercials.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: @Riffs33 - (reading) the average human being is exposed to 4,000-plus ads a day, and J.B. Pritzker appears in all of them.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: @182mph - (reading) I literally¹⁰ had to buy Spotify Premium¹¹ just so I wouldn't hear J.B. Pritzker ads every two songs.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: @IvanJukic333 - (reading) when I win the Mega Millions, I'm going to somehow find a way to stop all these J.B. Pritzker ads.

ARNOLD: And, hey, it's close to the election. So to be fair to Pritzker, his ads do sometimes seem to work.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: @teto_0207 - (reading) all these ads J.B. Pritzker is releasing on legalizing marijuana just might make me vote for him.

ARNOLD: Pritzker has spent about $80 million on advertising. Though his campaign points out all this record-breaking money isn't just for commercials, that between field offices and staff, they have built one of the biggest campaign infrastructures¹² in the country, and that Pritzker has been giving millions to fellow Democrats¹³. Pritzker says he's not doing that just to buy their loyalty¹⁴ should he become governor. He's doing that because he has always given Democrats lots of money.

J B PRITZKER: You're mistaking something, and that is that I've been involved in Democratic politics for decades now and supporting candidates, most of whom could not - right? - you know, to support their own campaigns, they needed to raise money.

ARNOLD: Pritzker's money comes from his family. He's an heir to the Hyatt Hotel franchise¹⁵. But his Republican opponent, Rauner, frames the Democrats' campaign spending like this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRUCE RAUNER: He is trying to buy political office. He's trying to buy the governorship to be something for the first time in his life because if he wasn't a trust fund baby, he would be nothing.

ARNOLD: Pritzker says it's statements like that which show how desperate Rauner is. Rauner himself is rich. He started his re-election campaign with $70 million - 50 million from himself and 20 million from one of the few people in Illinois richer than Pritzker, Ken¹⁶ Griffin. Pritzker outspent Rauner nearly 2 to 1 in the last three months.

JAY YOUNG: It's just distressing¹⁷ where you see these figures. And I just feel like it makes people think that their democracy really isn't for them anymore.

ARNOLD: Jay Young leads Common Cause Illinois, and he's been tracking this money fight.

YOUNG: I'm hoping that it doesn't end up that the only field that we see from now going forward is billionaires. But sadly, we - that's the way we've been trending.

ARNOLD: He says if Pritzker does defeat Rauner, that could just set up another self-financing Republican to challenge Pritzker in four years. For NPR News, I'm Tony Arnold in Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF JAPANESE BREAKFAST SONG, "MACHINIST")

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

4 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 touts   

n.招徕( tout的名词复数 )；（音乐会、体育比赛等的）卖高价票的人；侦查者；探听赛马的情报v.兜售( tout的第三人称单数 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• Many vouchers are returned for cash, allowing touts and middle men to make a healthy margin. 许多月饼券都被兑换成现金，这让券贩子和中间商赚取了不蜚的利润。 来自互联网
• Spotting prey, the customary crowd of hustlers and touts swarmed around, jostling for my business. 照例有大群的拉客黄牛在寻觅猎物，他们争相过来抢我的生意。 来自互联网

7 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

10 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

11 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

12 infrastructures   

n.基础设施( infrastructure的名词复数 )；基础结构；行政机构；秘密机构

参考例句：

• Public transportation termini and depots are important infrastructures for a city. 公交场站设施是城市重要的基础设施。 来自互联网
• The increasingly fast urbanization process requires more and more infrastructures. 我国城市化进程不断加快，对城市基础设施的需求也越来越大。 来自互联网

13 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

15 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

16 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

17 distressing   

a.使人痛苦的

参考例句：

• All who saw the distressing scene revolted against it. 所有看到这种悲惨景象的人都对此感到难过。
• It is distressing to see food being wasted like this. 这样浪费粮食令人痛心。