DNC notebook: Pritzker coy about future, Colbert shouts out Mount Prospect
Amid a focus on Vice President Kamala Harris’ political future, Gov. J.B. Pritzker had an enigmatic comment about his own Monday during the Democratic National Convention.
Speaking about Illinois’ clout as a Democratic bastion, Pritzker said “everyone knows that we’re a big blue state in the middle of the country. But what many people don’t know is that over the last 50 years, we’ve had more Republican governors than we’ve had Democratic governors, and more years of Republican rule in the governorship than we’ve had Democratic governors.
“It seems crazy but it’s true that when I serve out the end of this second term, I will be the longest-serving Democratic governor in the history of Illinois,” Pritzker told a crowd at the state’s breakfast meeting.
“I’m not suggesting that I want to try and beat (former GOP Gov.) Jim Thompson’s 14-year record,” Pritzker added to laughter. “My wife’s not here, and I don’t want anyone talking to her about it. But she is my term limit, so if (anyone) wants to … convince her one way or another, you’re welcome to do that.”
Colbert shouts out Mount Prospect
In town all week to broadcast his weeknight talk show from Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, Stephen Colbert was spotted over the weekend at the Wiener’s Circle and leading the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley Field.
But he also knows something about community events happening in the suburbs.
In a bit that aired on his CBS Late Show last Thursday, the Second City alum and Northwestern University grad was joined on set by actor Sean Hayes for “Chicago’s Community Calendar, your source for what’s going on in Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area.”
Stephen Colbert, who’s in town to record his late-night talk show during the Democratic National Convention, gave a shoutout to a Mount Prospect music fest during a bit recorded last week alongside actor and Glen Ellyn native Sean Hayes.
That included shout-outs to the 56 Music Fix festival in Mount Prospect featuring local bands like Uncle Pigeon, Booti Grooviani, and Day Drinkerz, “who take the stage at 5 p.m., unless they’ve already blacked out,” Colbert quipped.
Hayes, who grew up in Glen Ellyn and graduated from Glenbard West High School, took note of his DuPage County roots.
“As we say in DuPage County: Do take a page out of our book,” Hayes said.
No ‘cool kids’ table
Instead of one table for congressional hotshots, one for state politicos and another for grass-roots volunteers, Democrats mixed it up over pancakes at the Illinois delegation’s first breakfast meeting.
Democratic National Convention delegates Mark Guethle and Beth Penesis of Kane County shared a table Monday with U.S. Reps. Sean Casten, Bill Foster and Lauren Underwood, state Sens. Laura Murphy and Laura Fine, DuPage County Chair Deb Conroy and others. U.S. Sen. Tammy also paused to chat, as did Sen. Dick Durbin.
“We've all been through a lot of wars together, and we've helped each other in so many different ways,” said Penesis, a South Elgin resident. “So to be able to come together at this, and the camaraderie is what I look forward to the most.”