Battle Royale for Obama’s Illinois Senate Seat
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is one of the leading contenders.
The maneuvering began before Barack Obama was even elected president. A genuine political scramble was on as Illinois politicians great and not so great let it be known subtly and not so subtly that they wouldn’t say no if Governor Rod Blagojevich tapped them to fill out the unexpired portion of Obama’s term in the United States Senate.
There are so many issues and personalities involved in the decision-making process that the selection promises to be controversial no matter who is chosen. It would take the wisdom of Solomon to sort out the confusing, conflicting currents of race, faction, and family in order to arrive at a consensus so that the Democratic Party in Illinois doesn’t fly apart at the seams.
And smack dab in the middle of the maelstrom is the current governor, Milorad “Rod” R. Blagojevich, proud Serbian-American. He is also a man on the cusp of becoming the fourth Illinois governor out of the last seven to be indicted for corruption. He was mentioned prominently and not in the best light, during the trial of Obama friend, financier, and patron Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who was convicted of fraud in connection with a statehouse “pay to play” scheme. Federal prosecutors have leaked the information that they think they have enough on the governor for an indictment, largely — it is believed — because Rezko is singing to the feds in exchange for a lighter sentence. There is also a move among members of his own party in the Illinois House to impeach him. The governor is not only unpopular in the state, he is spectacularly and universally hated. A recent poll conducted by the Chicago Tribune found that just 13% of residents approved of the job he was doing.
In short, Governor Blagojevich might want to hurry the process of selecting Obama’s replacement along since he may not be sleeping in the governor’s mansion much longer. He claims he wants to settle the matter before Christmas. If so, he will probably be able to make that deadline — barely — before either resigning in disgrace or being kicked out by members of his own party.
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Rick Moran is PJM Chicago editor; his own blog is Right Wing Nut House.
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14 Comments
1. RE:Illinois is such a corrupt state and Chicago an especially corrupt city. I am happy I left it years ago. It is very discouraging to see this culture moving into Washington. Very discouraging.
Nov 13, 2008 - 4:33 am 2. Libsaremorons:Tell me about it, I live in one of the far northwest suburbs and get to pay extra taxes for the corrupt public transit system in Chicago. My vote hasn’t counted for years since there are about 3 million far left “give me a hand out” idiots who live in cook county and keep voting idiots like BLAGO into office. I hate what the liberals are turning my state into.
Nov 13, 2008 - 7:33 am 3. schnargley:Hope springs eternal out of Chicago!!!
Nov 13, 2008 - 9:20 am 4. Nick:Blagojevich doesn’t even sleep in the governor’s mansion, he flies back to Chicago on the taxpayer’s dime. What a crook.
Nov 13, 2008 - 9:33 am 5. Sandra:It’s hard to fish around in the cess pool of Chicago politics and come up with a winner. All in all, I think Duckworth may be the ONLY choice for the Senate. She seems to have avoided taking a dip in the pool up til now and appears relatively “clean” and without political or personal baggage. For a Chicago politician, that is high praise.
Nov 13, 2008 - 12:25 pm 6. thegr8_1:George Ryan needs a roommate. Jim Edgar was the only decent governor we had the last 30 years Jim Thompson was OK. I hope Tammy Duckworth gets picked she was shot down in Iraq and lost both her legs. She laid wreath at Soldier Field with Obama on Veterans Day.
Nov 13, 2008 - 1:06 pm 7. Jordan:Tammy Duckworth has Emmanuel run her campaign. Enough said about her not being part of the dirty Chicago politics.
Nov 13, 2008 - 2:58 pm 8. The Historian:RADICAL POLITICIANS WILL DESTROY OBAMA
The far left in Congress is on track to ruin the Obama administration:
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2008/11/radical-politicians-will-destroy-obama.html
Nov 13, 2008 - 9:08 pm 9. Pat J:I’d go with Tammy Duckworth. But what about Lisa Madigan?
Nov 14, 2008 - 1:42 pm 10. harmonicminer » As goes Chicago goes Illinois:[...] Obama’s senate seat filled, for the remainder of his term, we find this nugget about the man who will make the decision. Sounds like Illinois politics and Chicago politics were twins, separated at birth, and reconnected [...]
Nov 15, 2008 - 9:50 pm 11. TexEd:That’s why Jesse Jackson Sr. was crying on election night. He was thinking of how much more money he’d be able to extort and how ge could rub the King family nose in the dirt with his crooked son in the Senate rather than the House. Same reason Biden’s son was in tears; the sale of the inflience of the Vice President will drive a lot more revenue than the sale of the influence of a mere Senator, especially a doofus Senator.
Nov 16, 2008 - 6:53 am 12. Liz:What a cynical lot. Blago should go, as it turns out he is corrupt. Its not the liberals that are ruining my home state–its the crooks and these two things are not synonomous. We haven’t had an honest governor ever in my 53 years. Edgar, may not have personally taken money but he tolerated people in his administration who did. Thompson? the biggest crook of them all.
Nov 17, 2008 - 1:25 pm 13. Jim Lindgren:Duckworth is my vote too.
That was very helpful.
Without any knowledge on this, I assumed that the two front runners would be Jesse Jackson, Jr., and Lisa Madigan, the extremely well connected Atty General. I would put my money on Madigan to win an open primary in 2010, if the incumbent doesn’t run.
(Danny Davis is my Congressman; for Senator, they’ve GOT to be kidding!)
Also, Obama might have more to do with this than usual. It was David Axelrod who put Blagojevich in the Governor’s mansion. So Obama and Blagojevich are both Axelrod proteges. And Blagojevich might need a pardon from President Obama down the road.
Nov 17, 2008 - 9:02 pm 14. Right Wing Nut House » OBAMA’S SENATE SEAT UP FOR GRABS:[...] article originally appeared at Pajamas Media By: Rick Moran at 11:11 [...]
Nov 24, 2008 - 8:11 am