(CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS) – A suburban video gambling mogul is putting his chips into a Republican primary bid for Illinois governor.

Rick Heidner, a Barrington Hills real estate developer and the owner of Gold Rush Gaming, formed a gubernatorial campaign committee on Tuesday, according to a filing with the State Board of Elections. It comes less than two weeks before the petition filing deadline for the March primary. 

Candidates for governor must attain at least 5,000 signatures to secure a place on the ballot. Heidner’s running mate is Homer Glen Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike, according to petitions being circulated.

Heidner joins a crowded Republican primary field that includes former state Sen. Darren Bailey — the party’s 2022 gubernatorial nominee; Ted Dabrowski, former president of conservative think tank Wirepoints; and two-term DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick. The winner likely gets a matchup against Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire who is seeking a third term as the state’s chief executive. 

Calls to Heidner from Capitol News Illinois were not immediately returned Tuesday.

 

Longtime business player

The 65-year-old has been a player in the state’s business community and political circles for decades. 

Gold Rush Gaming, which Heidner founded with his wife Alisa in 2012, is the third-largest video gaming terminal operator in Illinois. The company’s machines are in nearly 800 bars, restaurants and gas stations across the state, according to Illinois Gaming Board records. 

And Heidner’s real estate firm manages more than 280 properties across the country. He also owns the gas station chain Ricky Rockets Fuel Center and wholesale fuel supplier Prairie State Energy. 

Heidner has been associated with some controversial figures over the years. In 2019, the Chicago Tribune reported that he partnered in some real estate deals with a banking family that had alleged mob ties. 

Around the same time, Heidner’s name surfaced in a federal search warrant executed on now-former state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s Springfield office as part of a sweeping public corruption probe. Federal prosecutors later confirmed that Heidner was not a target of the investigation. 

Amid all that, the Pritzker Administration axed the proposed sale of a state-owned site in Tinley Park eyed by Heidner and Hawthorne Race Course president Tim Carey for a racetrack and casino project. 

Heidner and his wife were also hit with a $5 million federal tax lien in 2023, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. A spokesman for the couple told the paper at the time that the amount owed would be paid back within a few weeks under an Internal Revenue Service payment plan. 

 

A donor to both parties

Heidner has been a generous — and bipartisan — donor to Illinois political candidates over the years in his personal capacity and through his property management company. 

He was a financial supporter of Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s failed GOP gubernatorial bid in 2022. And he has contributed to prominent Democrats such as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Illinois Senate President Don Harmon. 

His late entry adds another wrinkle to what’s shaping up to be a contentious campaign for the GOP nomination.

Bailey secured 57% of the vote in a six-man GOP primary field in 2022. He was aided indirectly by Pritzker, who spent millions on an ad campaign during the primary cycle labeling Bailey as “too conservative” for Illinois. The Xenia farmer was also endorsed by President Donald Trump and funded by conservative donor Richard Uihlein. 

But Pritzker defeated Bailey by more than 12.5 percentage points, or about 500,000 votes, in the general election. And with more than a decade having passed since Republicans’ last statewide electoral victory, there are signs that party operatives are looking for someone new to be their standard bearer. 

Uihlein, the billionaire owner of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin-based Uline, is supporting Dabrowski. As is former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, a prominent conservative who backed Bailey in 2022. 

Read more: Dabrowski sets fundraising bar at $1.5M in GOP primary for governor

Dabrowski broke the fundraising caps with a $250,000 personal loan to his campaign and is leading the fundraising pack with $1.5 million from a handful of wealthy donors.  With deep pockets of his own, Heidner will likely be able to compete with Dabrowski and the better-known Bailey. 

Heidner donated $1 million to his campaign, per a filing with the State Board of Elections late Tuesday afternoon.

 

Campaign chair has Bailey ties

Heidner’s campaign chairman is Brett Corrigan, a political operative who worked on Bailey’s 2022 campaign but abruptly left over a human resources issue and considered seeking a legal settlement with the candidate, the Chicago Tribune reported. Corrigan attended Bailey’s private school and lived with Bailey’s family when he was younger.

Bailey and Corrigan in recent weeks appeared to be on better terms. Save Illinois, a political action committee chaired by Corrigan, paid for Bailey’s campaign launch event in suburban Chicago last month, campaign finance records indicate. 

And in an August social media post, Bailey called Corrigan his “good friend” and said he was “blessed to have him in my corner.”

Corrigan told Capitol News Illinois that he pledged to sponsor events for Bailey, Dabrowski and other candidates, but that Save Illinois “is not getting involved with any primaries.”

“We simply sponsored an event,” Corrigan said. “We sponsor Republican events — it’s what we do.”

Corrigan said he supports Heidner and called him “a friend” and “a political outsider” while suggesting that “voters are just a bit fatigued” with the other candidates.

Bailey’s campaign hadn’t returned a request for comment as of Tuesday afternoon.

Also running for governor on the Republican side is Lake Forest businessman Joe Severino and attorney Max Solomon, who received less than 1% of the vote in the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary.

Pritzker, who spent more than $300 million on his first two campaigns for governor, appears to be unopposed in the Democratic primary.

 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.