CHICAGO _ J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire businessman with political ambitions, told Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich he was "really not that interested" in the U.S. Senate seat the governor was dealing in late 2008.
Instead, Pritzker offered his own idea: Would Blagojevich make him Illinois treasurer?
Phone calls secretly recorded by federal agents _ never before publicly revealed _ captured that exchange and other conversations between the influential Democratic donor and the then-governor discussing politics, their futures and the ramifications of Blagojevich's authority to fill the Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Although Blagojevich raised the idea of appointing Pritzker to the Senate, Pritzker expressed his preference for being state treasurer, a post he believed might soon be vacated by its occupant, Alexi Giannoulias, who was rumored to be in the running for a post in the Obama White House. In one conversation, Blagojevich asked Pritzker for a significant campaign contribution as the two discussed the possible treasurer's appointment.
During the discussions about the treasurer's office, Pritzker spoke of enlisting the chief executives of Chicago's commodities exchanges to float the idea publicly. And, if the treasurer appointment didn't work out, Blagojevich suggested he could make Pritzker Illinois' attorney general, after asking the Hyatt Hotels heir if he had a law degree.
"My interest in holding public office is, you know, always large," Pritzker told Blagojevich in a call on Nov. 6, 2008, two days after Obama was elected president.
Pritzker did not respond to requests for an interview, and his campaign did not respond to Chicago Tribune questions Wednesday. The Pritzker campaign issued a statement.
"If one listens to the actual calls released in the story there was nothing untoward about J.B.'s conversations with the governor," Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Galia Slayen said in a statement. "Throughout J.B.'s life he's had an interest in serving the people of Illinois and that's exactly what he expressed when discussing a potential opening in the treasurer's office."
Federal law enforcement officials captured the candid talks on secret wiretaps as they investigated Blagojevich and his administration for public corruption in fall 2008. The Tribune obtained the recordings, as well as transcripts of calls to others.
Pritzker's longtime relationship with Blagojevich already has emerged as an early campaign issue as he seeks the 2018 Democratic nomination for governor.
The calls from the 2008 investigation show Pritzker and Blagojevich consulted on how various Senate candidates would bolster the governor's interests. The two also mused about the ongoing criminal investigation into Blagojevich's administration and the financial troubles of a bank controlled by Pritzker's sister.
Obama's election in November 2008 provided Blagojevich with the rare opportunity to appoint a new U.S. senator. Although Blagojevich was under intense scrutiny, politicians, businessmen and others were more than willing to speak to him about the Senate seat.
Pritzker was one of them. He and Blagojevich discussed various horse-trading scenarios that would benefit the governor. During the same Nov. 6, 2008, conversation, the two discussed one possibility: perhaps Blagojevich should follow Obama's wishes and pick the president-elect's friend, Valerie Jarrett, for the Senate seat.
"The only reason to do it is if he'll appoint you to something," Pritzker advised the governor.
In the statement Wednesday, the Pritzker campaign said, "when the governor brings up whether J.B. would be interested in being appointed to the Senate, on multiple occasions J.B. expresses he is not and moves away from the type of conversation that landed Rod Blagojevich in prison."
Pritzker's calls with Blagojevich came at a time when it was widely known that the governor was the target of an intensifying, yearslong federal investigation into the governor's administration and fundraising activities.
In June 2008, a few months before the phone calls between Pritzker and the governor, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who had been a key Blagojevich fundraiser and adviser, was convicted by a federal jury of corruption charges after a headline-grabbing trial that lasted weeks. Testimony showed Blagojevich was aware of the "pay-to-play" schemes in Rezko's criminal case. Weeks later came public disclosure that Blagojevich himself had been interviewed multiple times by investigators.
By fall 2008, the Tribune reported that a former aide to the governor, John Wyma, who was still fundraising for him, was subpoenaed.
What Pritzker would not have known was that Wyma had begun cooperating with federal investigators, and that the FBI bugged the governor's campaign offices. Secret recordings then expanded to other Blagojevich phone lines, including the one Blagojevich used to conduct business from his Northwest Side home.
Federal authorities who had been listening for illegal fundraising activity quickly learned that Blagojevich was self-dealing when it came to the selection to replace Obama.
Blagojevich eventually was convicted of sweeping political corruption charges, including an attempt to sell Obama's Senate seat, and sentenced to 14 years in prison. FBI agents listened in on calls to others in which Blagojevich discussed whether he would pick Jarrett in exchange for being named to Obama's Cabinet, and whether he might be able to fill the seat with someone else in exchange for campaign cash or a high-paying job after he leaves government.
The friendly relationship between Blagojevich and Pritzker reaches back at least a decade earlier, when Pritzker unsuccessfully ran for a North Side congressional seat. Blagojevich, then in Congress, publicly applauded Pritzker's candidacy and promised big things in his future.
Lamenting that Pritzker's immense inherited wealth _ Forbes puts his worth at $3.4 billion _ may have stirred prejudice that hindered his candidacy, Blagojevich made a prediction.
"We are going to hear a lot more from J.B. Pritzker, because ultimately, in the long haul, quality will emerge, (as will) J.B.'s knowledge of issues and his commitment to those issues. This was a good first start and I think J.B. has a tremendous future. Remember, Abraham Lincoln didn't win his first election and Mario Cuomo lost several races before he got elected. For J.B., this is only the beginning," the future governor said in a May 1998 Tribune profile of Pritzker.
In January 2006, when Blagojevich found himself in hot water over his plan to use taxpayer money to rebuild fire-damaged Pilgrim Baptist Church in Bronzeville, Pritzker bolstered the governor's initiative by donating $500,000 from his family's foundation to the cause.
A few months later, Pritzker wrote an opinion piece in the Tribune praising Blagojevich's "All Kids" and "Preschool For All Children" programs as a potential national model in early childhood intervention programs. At the time, Blagojevich was struggling to shape his image as a progressive governor while journalists were beginning to raise questions about his fundraising activities _ a line of inquiry that eventually led to his downfall.
In late October 2006, Blagojevich announced a $1 million state grant to help build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie. Pritzker was a chief fundraiser for the museum.
