Blagojevich Impeached, ousted as Governor of Illinois
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Blagojevich at 4:43 p.m. today became the first governor in Illinois’ 190-year history to be driven from office by impeachment.
Senators voted 59-0 to oust the governor, who was arrested Dec. 9 on federal corruption charges. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is at the Capitol and is set to be sworn in as the state’s 43rd governor.
The historic vote to dump Blagojevich came hours after a sometimes somber but mostly defiant governor finally showed up at his impeachment trial to make his case to avoid being removed from office.
“I want to apologize to you for what happened, but I can’t,” the governor said. “I didn’t do anything wrong.
“If I felt I did something wrong, I would have resigned in December. I wouldn’t put my family through this, I wouldn’t put you through this, and most importantly, I wouldn’t put the people of Illinois through this. But I didn’t resign then and I’m not resigning now because I have done nothing wrong.”
After his speech, Blagojevich opted not to stay in the chamber and instead went into his Capitol office to wish his staff well. “There were a lot of tears,” said Clayton Harris, Blagojevich’s chief of staff.
Early this afternoon, it was clear senators weren’t swayed by the governor’s appeal.
“I say we have this thing, impeachment. It’s bleepin’ golden, and we’ve used it the right way,” said Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago).
Justifying his planned vote against Blagojevich, Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) dwelled on the contradiction between Blagojevich’s desire to expand health care and allegations he intended to hit up the head of Children’s Memorial Hospital for a $50,000 contribution in exchange for freeing up $8 million for specialty care for low-income children.
“If he was sincere about providing health care, he wouldn’t try to be shaking down the chief executive of Children’s Hospital,” Raoul said. “We can’t call for