Dear Neighbor,
Yesterday, in a historic impeachment vote, the Illinois Senate voted unanimously (59-0) to remove Governor Blagojevich from office. We also voted unanimously to ban Governor Blagojevich from running for any Illinois public office in the future.
After hearing and reviewing all of the testimony and evidence presented by the House Prosecutor, I pressed my yes button on both of these votes with a very clear conscience. It is clear that the Governor demonstrated a pattern of abuse of power as presented in the House article of impeachment. His decision-making process regarding the vacant U.S. Senate seat, signing legislation, and implementing programs by going around the legislature, among others, was based on benefiting himself rather than the people of Illinois.
Despite the former Governor’s protestations that “the fix was in”, he had every opportunity to present a defense but instead chose to conduct a media tour. The Senate Rules for the impeachment trial gave both the prosecutor and the Governor the ability to dispute any of the evidence sent to the Senate from the House Impeachment. Further, while the Governor could not call as witnesses some individuals who are party to his criminal case, the same rules applied to the Prosecutor. The Governor could have called other witnesses and presented evidence, as the Prosecutor did. The Senate Rules for the trial and much of the evidence can be found online by clicking here.
Today the sun is shining and I – like people throughout the state – am breathing a sigh of relief that we can start a new chapter. Clearly Illinois suffers from a culture of corruption that requires ethics reforms such as campaign contribution limits and greater transparency and oversight. We have an enormous budget deficit that has to be tackled. And we need a capital plan to restore our infrastructure and put Illinois residents back to work. I am confident that our new Governor, Patrick Quinn, and the House and Senate will now pull together to start the real work that needs to be done.
Please call or email me if you have any questions or would like further insights into the impeachment trial. I welcome your thoughts and suggestions.
Best,
Heather A. Steans
State Senator |
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