Hillary Clinton Campaigns For J.B. Pritzker In Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Hillary Clinton is in Chicago on Monday, appearing with Democratic candidate for governor J.B. Pritzker at a women's empowerment event, but can the former presidential candidate empower the Pritzker campaign?
Pritzker obviously sees value in having the former first lady and secretary of state sharing the stage with him. The event also brings back memories of Pritzker's loyalty to Clinton over Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
Clinton and Pritzker both took part in a panel discussion on leadership with high school girls in the River North neighborhood.
"Someone who is elected or chosen to be a leader should be serving people," Clinton said.
"A good servant/leader is someone who listens," Pritzker added.
In 2008, Pritzker backed Clinton, the presumed Democratic nominee, instead of a charismatic local upstart named Barack Obama in the primary.
Obama holds no grudge, and has endorsed Pritzker for governor, with Pritzker seeking to tap into Clinton's popularity among women Democrats.
"I think that Hillary Clinton certainly has her supporters. I don't think it's going to make that big of a difference, though, in this race. I think a lot of people have already made up their minds about who they're going to vote for," U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski said.
Meantime, Gov. Bruce Rauner helped break ground on the 75th Street Corridor Project, a rail flyover and road underpass designed to break a longtime bottleneck where four major train lines intersect.
"This is one of the most important transportation projects anywhere in our nation," Rauner said.
Major federal funding was key to that project.
"The Department of Transportation's largest infrastructure investment this year, and that's $132 million," U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said.
That's still less than the total amount of money Pritzker has spent on his campaign; now up to $148.6 million, which means, Pritzker could have written the federal check for the untangling of the trains all by himself.
Meantime, Rauner has raised about half as much money as Pritzker, approximately $79 million.