He’s feeling left a little high and dry.
Reeling from a recent defeat on hemp legislation, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker lashed out at his fellow Democrat, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson who had publicly pushed to tank the bill.
Pritzker, 59, didn’t mince words about Johnson, 48, whose approval rating is heavily underwater, and accused him and his team of not being communicative, even skipping scheduled calls.
“They don’t reach out very often, and it seems like they don’t have good relationships in Springfield in part because they don’t reach out very often,” Pritzker chided about Johnson during a press conference on healthcare infrastructure grants.
“We, by the way, scheduled calls,” Pritzker further jabbed. “And then they didn’t show up. And then there was a December call that happened in which they didn’t ask for anything.”
“But again, he has my number.”
Pritzker’s blunt assessment of Johnson came after he got pressed by reporters about their rapport after he had tough words for his fellow Democrats in the state legislature for tanking the hemp legislation.
The billionaire Hyatt hotel chain heir had backed state legislation to heavily restrict the sale of products like delta-10 THC, delta-8 and similar hemp-derived substances that have become particularly popular amongst the youth in Illinois.
Proponents of the bill argued that a loophole in current law permitted smoke shops to sell unregulated hemp products to minors.
State-licensed legalized cannabis are subject to far more robust regulations than hemp shops in the state, which aren’t subject to the same level of taxes and fees, don’t have to label the product potency and don’t have to comply with age restrictions.
“I want to be clear, if this had come up for a vote if the speaker had called this, this would’ve passed with a supermajority,” Pritzker further groused, noting that he’s mulling other options.
Johnson had pushed against the bill, arguing that it would deal a blow to revenue in the Windy City.
By the end of last year, Pritzker’s team had acknowledged that the legislation to crack down on hemp products had fallen by the wayside.
But Pritzker wasn’t about to give the Chicago mayor any credit for torpedoing the measure and also raked some of his fellow Democrats in the state legislature over the coals.
“It’s a tragedy that the bill didn’t pass. The mayor had very little to do with the ultimate result. I think there was a raucous meeting of the Democratic House caucus, in which there was a lot of yelling,” Pritzker contended.
“Certainly what happened with regard to the hemp bill is potentially a demonstration of challenges that the House will have in organizing to overcome some of the challenges that we’re going to face this spring.”
Johnson has clarified that he is “aligned” with the governor in wanting to ratchet up regulations on hemp products.
“The governor and I — we are aligned as it related to making sure there are strict regulations around this particular kind of product,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox 32 Chicago published by the network Tuesday.
“Here’s all we said is that we have to be at the table together to ensure that we are maximizing regulations to keep people safe but also ensuring that local municipalities and stakeholders are part of this process.”
The Post has reached out to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office for comment on Pritzker’s sharp critique of him earlier in the day.
“We’re all on the same team, right? No one can fight with anyone,” Johnson added in the exchange with Fox 32 Chicago. “Sometimes within family, you can come to slightly different conclusions, but we’re all moving towards the same goal.”
Johnson, who was first elected mayor in 2023, has reportedly had a strained relationship with the governor’s office at times.
Though sparsely available, polling has generally pegged Johnson as being underwater with the public. A Change Research poll found him to have a 14% approval rating last year.
