Dupage Policy Journal

Rep. Amy Grant (R-Wheaton) said Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s flip-flop to move lawmakers to the front of the COVID-19 vaccinations line is about politics.

“After more than a year of doing nothing, he knows he has to have us back in Springfield for session soon, and I think he feels if there is an outbreak of COVID among legislators, it would fall on him, and he doesn’t want that,” Grant told the DuPage Policy Journal in February. “I still can’t figure out why he’s kept us out of session for this long, but I’m just as certain when we go back, it will all be about politics.”

After initially taking the position state lawmakers should wait their turn when it comes to getting the vaccination, the governor last month reversed course to support a plan allowing the state’s 177 lawmakers to receive the shot during Phase 1B of the state inoculation plan.

State officials officially kicked off Phase 1B in early February with residents 65 or older and those deemed to be frontline-essential workers topping the list of those eligible for shots.

Pritzker’s support places lawmakers in the same grouping as teachers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics and grocery store workers.

“He’s never been very consistent,” Grant said. “He gets caught up in these situations then has to walk back so much of what he says. It’s clear to any reasonable person that the elderly should be first in line, along with first responders and people that are sick.”

After singlehandedly making all the critical decisions regarding how the state has handled the virus, Grant said Pritzker had become a prisoner to all his decisions.

“Given the way he’s been governing, he knows he’s going to have to take ownership for at least some of his behavior,” she said. “He sees now that there’s going to be a price to pay for operating as a one-man army.”