Giannoulias fundraising falls to $670,000 in 2Q

Illinois state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ (D) Senate campaign raised a lackluster $670,000 during the second quarter, according to the Chicago Sun-Times‘s Lynn Sweet.

Giannoulias’s campaign made a splash by reporting $1.1 million raised in the first quarter, but his fundraising has fallen off as he has encountered some personal controversy and Democratic leaders have looked elsewhere for a candidate.

State attorney general Lisa Madigan (D) announced Wednesday that she would not run for the seat, and businessman Chris Kennedy (D) is still putting together a campaign. On the GOP side, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is now telling people he will run for the seat.

Giannoulias’s announcement also comes the day that appointed Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) is set to announce he will not seek the seat.

The fact that the campaign didn’t release the numbers widely (as it did in the first quarter) and did so during a flurry of other, bigger news about the Senate race suggests it knows the report is something of a dud. In a big state like Illinois, Giannoulias would have been much better off if he pulled another quarter over $1 million.

Giannoulias’s total is still more than Kirk’s $580,000 raised in the second quarter, but Kirk raised all of his money as a House candidate, where totals are generally much smaller and it only takes a few million to win reelection.

Sweet’s story also notes Giannoulias is worth a lot of money and could potentially self-fund to some extent. Something tells me that’s a part of the story his campaign would like to emphasize at this point.