Milorad "Rod" Blagojevich (pronounced /bləˈɡɔɪ.əvɪtʃ/ ; Serbian: Милорад Благојевић ; born December 10, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Blagojevich was a State Representative before being elected to the United States House of Representatives representing parts of Chicago. He was elected governor in 2002. He is the second Serbian American to be elected governor of any state in the United States.
Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges on December 9, 2008. The charges involved conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery. The Justice Department complaint alleges that the governor conspired to commit several "pay to play" schemes, including attempting "to obtain personal gain ... through the corrupt use" of his authority to fill Barack Obama's vacated United States Senate seat. In a press briefing on the investigation, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald characterized the scheme as auctioning the seat off to "the highest bidder". The federal trial date has been set for 3 June 2010.
Ultimately, he appointed fellow Democrat and former state attorney general Roland Burris on New Year's Eve 2008. Burris was seated after some initial opposition in mid-January 2009. On January 8, 2009, the Illinois House of Representatives voted to impeach Blagojevich by a 114–1 vote for corruption and misconduct in office, the first time such an action has been taken against a governor of Illinois, making him the second state official in Illinois history to be impeached. On January 27, 2009, Blagojevich began a media campaign planned by power publicist Glenn Selig, founder of the crisis management public relations firm The Publicity Agency. During the two day campaign, he visited Today , Good Morning America , The Early Show , The View , multiple programs on Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC where he proclaimed his innocence and insisted he would be vindicated. Blagojevich was subsequently convicted and removed from office on January 29, 2009, by a unanimous 59–0 vote in the Illinois State Senate. In a separate vote, the Senate voted unanimously to bar Blagojevich permanently from having public office again in the state of Illinois. Lieutenant Governor Patrick "Pat" Quinn was sworn in subsequently as the new governor.
Blagojevich, often referred to by the nickname "Blago" in print and other media, was the first Democrat to be elected Governor of Illinois since Daniel Walker in 1972. Blagojevich struggled annually to pass legislation and budgets. He is currently the target of multiple federal investigations and had historically low approval ratings within Illinois; at one time the Rasmussen Reports ranked him "America's Least Popular Governor" even before the news of his corruption investigation broke.
Early life
Born as Milorad Blagojević , "Rod" (as he became known locally) was raised in Chicago's northwest side, the second of two children. His father, Radisav, was an immigrant steel plant laborer from a village near Kragujevac in what is now Serbia (then a region of Yugoslavia). His mother, Mila Govedarica, is a Serb originally from Gacko, Bosnia and Herzegovina (then also a part of Yugoslavia). His parents moved to Chicago in 1947. Blagojevich has a brother, Rob, who worked as a fund-raiser for Rod in Rod's later political career. Blagojevich spent much of his childhood working odd jobs to help the family pay its bills. He was a shoeshiner and pizza delivery boy before working at a meat packing plant. In order to afford university costs, Blagojevich worked for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System as a dishwasher.
Blagojevich does not have a middle name, but uses the initial "R" in honor of his deceased father.
Blagojevich graduated from Chicago's Foreman High School after transferring from Lane Technical High School. He played basketball in high school and participated in two fights after training as a Golden Gloves boxer. After graduation, he enrolled at the University of Tampa. After two years, he transferred to Northwestern University in suburban Evanston where he graduated with a B.A. in history in 1979. He later earned his J.D. from the Pepperdine University School of Law in 1983. He later said of the experience: "I went to law school at a place called Pepperdine in Malibu, California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean — a lot of surfing and movie stars and all the rest. I barely knew where that law library was." Blagojevich is married to Patricia Mell, the daughter of Chicago alderman Richard Mell.
Early career
Prosecutor
Through his father-in-law's connections, Blagojevich clerked for Chicago Alderman Edward Vrdolyak. Blagojevich then took a job as Cook County Assistant State's Attorney (assistant prosecutor) under State's Attorney Richard M. Daley, specializing in domestic abuse crimes and felony weapons cases.
Legislator
With the backing of his influential father-in-law, Blagojevich won a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1992, against an entrenched incumbent. He drew on his experiences as a prosecutor to draft bills that he argued would strengthen the state's judicial system and reduce crime.
In 1996, Blagojevich surrendered his seat in the state house to campaign in Illinois's 5th congressional district. The district had long been represented by the powerful Democrat, Daniel Rostenkowski, who served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Rostenkowski was defeated for re-election in 1994 after pleading guilty to mail fraud and had been succeeded by Republican Michael Patrick Flanagan. Blagojevich soundly defeated Flanagan, with support from his father-in-law. He was elected two more times, taking 74% against a nominal Republican challenger in 1998 and having only a Libertarian opponent during 2000. He was not known as a particularly active congressman. In the late 1990s he traveled with Jesse Jackson, Jr. to Belgrade in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to negotiate with President Slobodan Milošević for the release of American prisoners of war.
On October 10, 2002, Rod Blagojevich was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq. He was the only Democrat from Illinois to vote in favor of the Iraq War.
Gubernatorial campaigns
2002 election
See also: Illinois gubernatorial election, 2002During 2002, Blagojevich campaigned for his party's nomination to become governor. Blagojevich won a close primary campaign against former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris and Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas, who ran well in the suburban "collar" counties of Chicago. Blagojevich finished strongly in Southern Illinois, winning 55% of the primary vote downstate, enough to win a primary victory by a thin margin.
During the primary, state Senator Barack Obama backed Burris but supported Blagojevich after he won the primary at Burris's suggestion, serving as a "top adviser" for the general election. Future Obama senior adviser David Axelrod had previously worked with Blagojevich on congressional campaigns, but did not consider Blagojevich ready to be governor and declined to work for him on this campaign. According to Rahm Emanuel, he, Obama, Blagojevich's campaign co-chair David Wilhelm, and another Blagojevich staffer "were the top strategists of Blagojevich's 2002 gubernatorial victory", meeting weekly to outline campaign strategies. However, Wilhelm has said that Emanuel overstated Obama's role in the sessions, and Emanuel said in December 2008 that Wilhelm was correct and he had been wrong in his earlier 2008 recollection to The New Yorker .
In the general election, Blagojevich defeated Republican Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan. Blagojevich's campaign was helped by his well-connected father-in-law, Chicago alderman Richard Mell. Ethics scandals had plagued the previous administration of Republican George Ryan (no relation to Jim Ryan), and Blagojevich's campaign focused on the theme of "ending business as usual" in state government. Polls prior to the election found that many Illinois voters were confused about the names of George Ryan and Jim Ryan, a fact which Blagojevich used to his advantage. He asked, "How can you replace one Ryan with another Ryan and call that change? You want change? Elect a guy named Blagojevich." Blagojevich won with 52% of the vote over Jim Ryan. On election night, he said: “Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, Illinois has voted for change.”
2006 re-election
See also: Illinois gubernatorial election, 2006From 2005 to 2006, Blagojevich served as federal liaison for the Democratic Governors Association. Numerous scandals brought the governor's approval rating as low as 36 percent, with 56 percent disapproving near the end of 2005.
By early 2006, five Republicans campaigned in the primary for the right to challenge him in the general election, with state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka eventually winning the nomination. Blagojevich formally began his 2006 re-election campaign for Governor of Illinois on February 19, 2006. He won the Democratic primary on March 21 with 72% of the vote against challenger Edwin Eisendrath, whom Blagojevich would not debate. He convinced Democratic state senator James Meeks not to launch a third party campaign by
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