Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritkzer has ducked questions about whether he’ll run for reelection next year, but his sizable checkbook seems to have betrayed him.

After weeks of shutting down reporters about his widely expected but still unofficial bid for a second term, a campaign finance disclosure released Friday night revealed the billionaire Democrat dropped a cool $35 million into his political warchest a week ago.

State Sen. Christopher Belt defended his job as superintendent of a local water and sewer district, but declined to describe what he does there when asked on Friday, citing ongoing litigation.

“I show up. I work. I do whatever needs to be done,” Belt told the BND. “There’s open litigation. That’s just the way it works. You can’t comment when there’s that process going on.”

Cook County courts are scheduled to resume jury trials on Monday, but it will be a slow start that doesn’t offer much hope for relieving the massive case backlog that’s built up over a yearlong pandemic shutdown.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office said there are more than 28,000 pending cases right now — about 35% higher than the number before COVID-19 forced an end to normal court operations.

Republican lawmakers see delays in the federal census as opening a potential route for them to influence the drawing of new political maps in Illinois, a task that otherwise would go to the Democratic majority.

The majority control of the once-per-decade remapping carries a June 30 deadline under the Illinois Constitution. Detailed census numbers will not arrive until August after delays attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers learned during a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Chicagoans arrive early to the area around Montrose Harbor and Montrose Beach on a summer day, especially on the weekends, and scoop up all the free street parking.

Many come for family picnics and get there early to stake out the best spots, preferably close enough for the kids to go back and forth to the beach but near enough to the trees for a little protection from the sun.