If you don't already know state representative Juliana Stratton will become the first Black to be elected Illinois' Lieutenant Governor serving with Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker once they're installed in office next month.
Here's what Crain's says not only about her background but her role as Lt. Gov.
Now she is set to be inaugurated as the first African-American lieutenant governor of Illinois. While that No. 2 job is long on influence and short on statutory authority, Stratton plans to hammer home criminal justice and equality, themes that have dominated her life. She and Pritzker inherit a financially stressed state still digging out of a two-year budget crisis and facing pockets of population decline statewide.
Stratton, 53, is chairing their transition team, which is pursuing a plan to create a new office of criminal justice reform and economic opportunity that she will lead. Small-business loans for communities that have experienced disinvestment, from Chicago to East St. Louis, and equitably awarding state contracts across the state will be priorities, she says.
She's also eager to take one statutory role, overseeing the Governor's Rural Affairs Council. Aside from that, a bevy of transition committees studying issues from education to infrastructure to energy will recommend policies that further define her job, Stratton says.
Parts of the state outside Chicago will be skeptical, with her reception dependent on policy outcomes, says Kent Redfield, a retired University of Illinois at Springfield political science professor. "If good things are happening, it's much easier to be the face of that, and for people to be positive about the lieutenant governor," Redfield says.
Stratton's warmup was as a state representative for the 5th District, a skinny strip of land running from 79th Street through Bronzeville, up Michigan Avenue to the Gold Coast—a true tale of two cities. When it came to economic development, constituents on the north end complained about parking problems, while those on the south end couldn't find a place to buy a cup of coffee, she says.
If you want to know more about what the future Pritzker-Stratton team plans to do once they're installed in office
visit their transition website.
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