During my life four Illinois governors have been convicted of felonies after leaving office. Democratic governor Otto Kerner, Jr. (1961-1968) was convicted of bribery and was sent to prison. Democratic governor Dan Walker (1973-1977) was convicted of improprieties related to two savings and loans he owned and was sent to prison. The last governor, Republican George Ryan (1999-2003), has just recently been convicted of various acts of official corruption and sentenced to prison. By my count that’s three of the last eight.
Federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday that Antoin “Tony” Rezko used his influence as one of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s closest advisers and fundraisers to seek millions of dollars in kickbacks and campaign donations from firms seeking state business.
Rezko’s indictment comes less than a month before voters must decide whether to re-elect Blagojevich, a Democrat who won four years ago on a platform of ethics reform in the aftermath of the scandal-tarred tenure of George Ryan.
The governor is not accused of any wrongdoing and the indictment does not mention him by name. But the long-rumored charges have been hanging over Blagojevich’s campaign for months.
The indictment alleges that Rezko schemed to extort businesses that came before two state boards with the help of co-conspirator Stuart Levine, a campaign contributor re-appointed to the boards by the governor.
Blagojevich, in a Wednesday evening news conference at his campaign headquarters, described Rezko as a friend and supporter. But the governor played down Rezko’s extensive influence in the administration, which ranged from recommending appointees to the governor’s Cabinet to low-level jobs at the Illinois Tollway. The governor said he had no personal knowledge of any alleged wrongdoing.
“If in fact these allegations relating to Tony are true, he betrayed my trust,” Blagojevich said. “He lied to me. He deceived me. But a lot more important than that, he violated the public trust.
I have no idea whether Governor Blagojevich had any involvement whatsoever with this scheme. My gut level is that he’s too dumb to be involved in anything terribly complicated. But there have been various allegations of corruption against him and his administration almost from the moment that he took office.
Why is Illinois so blessed? There are lots of possibilities but I think it’s because machine politics, both Democratic and Republican, is so deeply imbedded into the fabric of Illinois politics and there’s so little oversight or recourse. Basically, the regular Republican or regular Democratic candidate for any given office is always elected and practically all legislative seats are “safe” most of the time. There’s no provision for recall and little motivation for politicians to examine their peers too closely. And with all of the independent taxing entities with little or no oversight or control on the part of the people there are lots and lots of opportunities for corruption.
