Pritkzer Plans To Live In Governor's Mansion, Appear With Rauner

CHICAGO — Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker said Monday he plans to live part-time at the governor's mansion in Springfield after taking office in January. On the same day, the current occupant of the mansion, Gov. Bruce Rauner, announced plans for a joint appearance next month with the man who defeated him by 15 points last week.

Pritkzer told the Chicago Tribune his two teenage children will remain in school in Chicago, and he and his wife would be doing "a lot of commuting."

"We’re excited about living in Springfield and spending time in central and southern Illinois,” the governor-elect told the Tribune.

Pritzker also said Monday he had not spoken to Rauner since the outgoing Republican conceded the mansion to him last week within about 30 minutes after polls closed.

The same day, the Bicentennial Commission announced Rauner and Pritzker would be appearing together Dec. 3 in Chicago.

"There is no better place to start uniting than at an event that celebrates the greatness of Illinois,” Rauner said in a release.

The outgoing and incoming governors will appear together at the official Bicentennial birthday celebration, which has been moved from the United Center to Navy Pier's grand ballroom due to weaker than expected ticket sales.

“The milestone represented by our 2ooth birthday is especially important as we turn our focus to the future,” Rauner said. “The state possesses a legacy of invention, persistence and economic vitality. This is the time to reflect on those assets and come together to put them to work for the people of Illinois.”

Pritzker said Illinoisans would celebrate the bicentennial as "one Illinois."

“We are the land of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, home to the world’s leading companies and universities, an economic powerhouse of the Midwest and agriculture powerhouse of our country," Pritzker said in a release. "Together, we will ring in our third century with hope and optimism and strive to build on the progress of the 200 years before us.”

Diana Rauner presided over a three-year, $15 million privately financed renovation of the governor's mansion, which included $1 million from the Rauners and a "sizable donation" from Pritzker, according to WMAQ-TV. The Rauners moved back into the home in May.

“This is one of the most historic, beautiful governor’s mansions anywhere in the United Sates,” Rauner said at the time, according to the Associated Press. “We are very proud to have it restored to its historic beauty.”

Built by Chicago architect John M. Van Osdel, the designer of Chicago's City Hall and Cook County Courthouse, and first occupied by Gov. Joel A. Matteson in 1856, its completion was celebrated with an open house reception described my a local newspaper at the time as the "gayest assemblage ever marshalled in our city."

Last renovated in 1971 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the Illinois Executive Mansion is the third oldest continuously occupied governor's residence in the nation.