Replacing Blagojevich
Dick Durbin Pat Quinn Howard Dean Several national and state officials called for Blagojevich to resign.Calls for Resignation from Prominent Democrats
- On December 10, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama
- On December 11, 2008, DNC Chair Howard Dean
- On December 9, 2008, Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn
- Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
- Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White
- Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias
- Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes
- On December 10, 2008, all 50 members of the Democratic Caucus of the United States Senate in a letter sent by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
- State Representative John Fritchey
- Colorado Governor Bill Ritter
- U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Jerry Costello
Calls for Resignation from Prominent Republicans
- Illinois Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson
- U.S. Congressman John Shimkus
After his arrest, Governor Blagojevich appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan R. Nolan, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and was released on a $4,500 signature bond. He was also ordered to surrender his passport and his firearm owner's identification card. He then returned to work where his office issued a statement saying the "allegations do nothing to impact the services, duties or function of the State".
Had he pled guilty to the charges, Blagojevich would have been automatically forced to resign as the Illinois Constitution does not allow convicted felons to hold office.
On December 11, 2008, John Fritchey, a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives, circulated a letter to the Illinois House Democratic Caucus to outline options for moving beyond the crisis caused by the criminal allegations against Blagojevich. In the letter, Fritchey mentioned the scenarios to replace Governor Blagojevich:
- voluntary resignation of Blagojevich as Governor of Illinois,
- filing of a Rule 382 motion by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan with the Illinois Supreme Court to seek a judicial ruling that Blagojevich was unable or unwilling to carry out his gubernatorial duties, and
- introducing a motion in the Illinois House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against Governor Blagojevich.
On December 13 and 14, Blagojevich's attorney Ed Genson, at hearings by the Illinois House of Representatives' Special Committee on Impeachment, stated that the Governor would not resign.
Read more about this topic: Rod Blagojevich Corruption Charges
Famous quotes containing the word replacing:
“I do not mean to imply that the good old days were perfect. But the institutions and structure—the web—of society needed reform, not demolition. To have cut the institutional and community strands without replacing them with new ones proved to be a form of abuse to one generation and to the next. For so many Americans, the tragedy was not in dreaming that life could be better; the tragedy was that the dreaming ended.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)