In strange times, strange things happen, particularly to those who are at the center of a gathering storm.

So get a load of this: Illinois has a new political matinee idol — J.B. Pritzker, a previously nondescript billionaire governor.

He’s dominating the news, making daily announcements of his most recent decisions regarding the state’s response to the corona virus pandemic. Calm, businesslike, well-spoken, Pritzker has acquitted himself nicely in the spotlight. As a consequence, he is drawing favorable attention from news outlets looking for fresh angles on the increasingly tiresome corona virus story and its maddeningly devastating fallout.

“Pritzker Is Having His Moment,” headlined a story in Chicago magazine.

It wrote that “nobody expected the billionaire hotel heir to be a strong governor. But during the COVID-19 crisis, he’s made decisions shirked by leaders both below and above him.”

A Thursday story in the Chicago Tribune also profiled Pritzker — this one was cast in David vs. Goliath tones.

“A rookie politician, Gov. J.B. Pritzker confronts the corona virus pandemic,” the Tribune wrote. “His response has raised his national profile and is sure to become part of his legacy.”

It’s no surprise that Pritzker is standing front and center on corona virus story in Illinois.

Governors are, after all, at the front lines, a reality attributable to the legal authority they hold to make decisions affecting every resident of their states.

There’s similar swooning over New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s heightened public profile on the corona virus. Many Democrats are enraptured by his image as the man in charge, to the point they’re urging that Joe Biden be dumped as the prospective Democratic presidential nominee and replaced with Cuomo.

Pritzker, of course, has been a model of professionalism in his public role as manager of the state’s response to the

corona virus pandemic.

But if anything is clear, it’s that his stay-at-home directives, marshalling of medical resources and shutdown of business as usual are efforts to err on the side of caution. He’s acknowledged his directives are effort to save people’s “lives,” not their “livelihoods.”

At the same time, Pritzker, who is certainly not an expert on any of the issues related to the pandemic, is basing his decisions on the recommendations of medical experts, especially epidemiologists.

If Pritzker’s public standing has been elevated by this crisis, it’s for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that he’s dominating the news, and those who acquit themselves well in the public spotlight move up in the public’s estimation.

Anyone remember Tyrone Fahner, a high-profile Chicago lawyer who was appointed to replace Attorney General William Scott after his conviction on corruption charges 40 years ago?

Fahner was headed to an overwhelming defeat at the hands of prominent Democrat Neil Hartigan in 1982 when someone spiked Extra-Strength Tylenol with cyanide in the Chicago area.

“Twice a day, Fahner stands before a battery of reporters and cameramen to tell about the search for the killer who spiked Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules with cyanide that proved fatal to seven people in the Chicago area,” stated a UPI story about Fahner’s sudden climb in the polls.

A Hartigan spokesman was quoted in the same story as saying that “he’s getting a million dollars of free media exposure, and there’s nothing we can do. I mean, are you going to criticize him for going out there and looking for a murderer?”

(Fahner, who didn’t catch the bad guy, ultimately lost the race.)

Pritzker, too, is benefitting from his new public persona because a guy who’s clearly trying to help ensure the good health of everyone isn’t going to make an enemy of anyone, at least not in public.

That’s why Republican legislative leaders Jim Durkin and Bill Brady have expressed support for the governor.

Invoking a credo from the Middle East that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” state Rep. Durkin of Western Springs contended that “we share a common enemy and share the same goal of working together to eradicate COVID-19. As in all emergencies, time spent on blame or fault provides little or no merit nor solutions.”

About the closest anyone has come to criticizing Pritzker for his heavy-handed decisions is the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber President Todd Maisch gently criticized Pritzker for shutting down state businesses, a move that has the potential to cripple the state’s economy and further devastate its already flagging finances. Maisch said “the chamber hoped the order would be a last resort.”

Pritzker is also faring well in comparison to the state’s last four governors, two of whom went to prison and two of whom were ineffective.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was particularly averse to dealing with difficult issues. He used to hide in his bathroom when financial advisers would show up at his office to discuss the state’s serious financial problems.

That’s one reason Illinois’ finances are even worse now.

There is, of course, no guarantee that Pritzker will continue to ride high.

When this horrendous pandemic is over, there will be considerable time to determine whether state and local officials overreacted or under-reacted, to decide which measures worked and which didn’t and whether the economy-threatening shutdowns were worth the considerable damage they caused.

But the after-action reports are for another day. For now, Pritzker is the man of the hour.

Jim Dey, a member of The News-Gazette staff, can be reached at jdey@news-gazette.com or 217-351-5369.