Blagojevich thrown out, Quinn sworn in

State senators voted unanimously Thursday to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office for abusing his gubernatorial power, and Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn was sworn in as his successor.

Blagojevich is the first Illinois governor to be removed from office by the legislature. The House of Representatives impeached him Jan. 9, prompting a Senate impeachment trial that began Monday and concluded with Thursday’s vote.
Senators also voted to ban Blagojevich from running for any public office in Illinois.

Before the trial began, Sen. David Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, said he believed the Senate could conduct a fair trial. Luechtefeld said it would not have been a fair criminal trial, but senators only had to prove that Blagojevich was unable to do his job.

“I am sure a lot of people went there knowing how they were going to vote,” Luechtefeld said Thursday evening. “I did.”

Blagojevich, who spoke to the Senate for roughly 45 minutes, asked senators how they could remove him from office when the events noted in the articles of impeachment occurred during his first term.

Luechtefeld said Blagojevich delivered “as good of a speech as you could make under the circumstances.”

Moments after the Senate’s rulings, Quinn was sworn in as the state’s 41st governor by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke.

SIU President Glenn Poshard said Quinn has expressed an interest in expanding the university’s clean energy initiatives and supported an effort to offer broadband Internet to rural communities in southern Illinois.

Poshard said he expects Quinn to visit SIUC to learn more about those initiatives and to discuss state funding for higher education during the next year.

“I’m confident that the new governor and new president of the Senate, as well as the (speaker of the House) will be supportive of higher education,” Poshard said. “I believe they will, and I am hopeful that this will be a different year for us.”

John Jackson, a visiting political science professor from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said he has confidence in Quinn’s ability to govern even though he comes into office during a financial crisis in Illinois.

“Right now, he needs to not take on the General Assembly,” Jackson said. “The relations between the executive and legislative branches have just been awful for the last six years. So now we need a governor to get along with the General Assembly.”

Traditionally, the governor delivers the state’s budget for the next fiscal year on the third Thursday in February. But Dave Gross, SIU’s lobbyist in Springfield, said he expects the budget delivery to be delayed by four weeks as legislators transition between governors.

Gross said the state budget looks bleak. He said he hopes the federal government approves a stimulus package for the states, which could prevent the university from being forced to make budget cuts.

“We’re going to have to face reality that this is going to be a difficult budget year,” Gross said. “We’re going to be heavily reliant on the federal stimulus bill.”

Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 263 or barton.lorimor@siude.com