Source: Associated Press
Rod Blagojevich survived round one with his head still intact.
With the jury falling one vote short on convicting the former Illinois governor, except on one lesser charge of lying to the FBI, federal prosecutors now have to prepare for an unpleasant hearing with U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel on August 26th to decide whether to take Blagojevich to court again.
The decision, though, seems to have already been made. ``It is absolutely our intention to retry this." prosecutor Reid Schar told reporters yesterday.
Ever since December 9, 2008, when the two-term governor was arrested on federal corruption charges (on conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery) leading up to his impeachment on January 8, 2009, Blagojevich has been a household name, giving late night talks show hosts enough material to last for a lifetime, while providing a forum to columnists and pundits to lament on all the ills of Illinois politics.
According to the Council of State Governments, Rod Blagojevich was the 18th governor impeached; and the eighth convicted ,eight others were acquitted; while three were threatened with impeachment but resigned before any such proceedings could be brought against them.
So as we wait to learn whether Mr. Blagojevich will be forced to step into the ring for round two with the federal prosecutors on corruption charges, I compiled a list of other governors who had their share of legal troubles.
• John A. Quitman (D-Miss.), faced a criminal indictment over liberating Cuba and was charged with violating American neutrality laws.
Quitman resigned on February 3, 1851.
• Len Small, Democrat Governor of Illinois from 1921 to 1929 was acquitted on June 24, 1922 on charges of embezzling $500,000 during his term as State Treasurer.
• Warren T. McCray (R-Ind) was convicted of mail fraud and resigned on April 29, 1924. McCray served three years in federal prison before being pardoned by President Herbert Hoover.
• William Langer (I-N.D.) was charged with soliciting money from state employees, and removed from office by the North Dakota Supreme Court on July 17, 1934.
NOTE: Langer was acquitted on all charges in 1936; and was reelected to his second gubernatorial term in 1936.
• March 12, 1965: A federal court in Chicago found former Illinois Governor William G. Stratton not guilty of income tax fraud after being charged with failing to report $93, 595 in income taxes during his second term as governor. Stratton, a Republican, was governor of Illinois from 1953 to 1961.
• February 19, 1973: Otto Kerner was convicted of accepting race track stock in return for favors to race track owners in 1962 while serving his first term as Illinois governor. He was also convicted of income tax invasion and lying to Internal Revenue Service Agents. Kerner was governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968.
• Marvin Mandel (D-Md.) was convicted on August 23, 1977, along with five co-defendants in a bribery case on 17 counts of mail fraud and one count of racketeering in which the Maryland governor accepted $350,000 in gifts over a six year period.
Mandel resigned from office.
• Removed from office three days before his term expired, former Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison on June 9th, 1981 for extortion, conspiracy and mail fraud in the awarding of liquor store licenses to political friends. During his final days in office, the embattled governor signed executive clemency documents for 52 prisoners, including a prisoner who had been convicted of murder
• On January 4, 1988, Daniel Walker began serving a seven year sentence for bank fraud and perjury stemming from improper loans arranged for him from his savings and loan institution before it went bankrupt. Walker, a Democrat, was governor of Illinois from 1973 to 1978.
• H. Guy Hunt (R-Ala.) was convicted and immediately removed from office on April 23, 1993 on felony charges of funneling $200,000 from his inaugural fund to banks near his home for personal use.
• J. Fife Symington (R-Ariz.) was convicted on September 4th 1997 on seven felony counts for defrauding lenders as a real estate developer in the 1980’s. Efective September 5th, 1997 at 5:00 p.m., the Arizona governor was removed from office.
• After being threatened with impeachment, Governor John G. Rowland (R-Conn), announced on June 21, 2004, he was resigning from office on charges of accepting free work from contractors on his private lakeside cottage.
• George Ryan, Illinois' 39th governor was convicted on federal corruption charges on April 17, 2006, three years out of office, which stemmed from charges while in office, including steering lucrative contracts to friends in return for payments and personal vacations.
• On March 11, 2008, after being caught in a federal wiretap for being a client of a high-priced prostitution ring, Eliot Spitzer (D-New York) resigned from office. The resignation took effect March 17th.
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Non-Criminal removals/resignations:
• Thomas L. Moodie (D-N.D.) was removed from office by the state Supreme Court in 1935 on allegations he didn’t meet the constitutional residency requirements.
• On October 7, 2003, Gray Davis (D-Calif) became only the second governor in U.S. history recalled by voters.
• Shortly after it was reported he had an affair with another man; James McGreevy (D-N.J) announced his resignation on August 12, 2004; which took effect on November 15th.
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Governor’s Impeached
• In 1870, William Holden (R-N.C.) was the first governor to be impeached on charges of ``high crimes and misdemeanors’’; among them for suspending the right of habeas corpus and sending the militia to confront the Ku Klux Klan who had been intimidating blacks from voting.
• In 1871, David Butler (R-Neb) was impeached and convicted on a number of charges, including appropriating funds into the treasury that was to be used for his personal use, and loaning money that was used ``recklessly’’ without proper authority.
• In August, 1913, the New York Assembly impeached and removed from office William Sulzer (D-N.Y.) on charges of filing false campaign receipts and misusing contributions to his campaign fund.
• In 1917, the House prepared 21 articles of impeachment against James Ferguson. (D-Texas). The Senate subsequently convicted the governor on 10 charges, nine of them involving criminal activity, including the misuse of public funds.
A day before the Senate was to vote, Ferguson resigned from office.
• On November 19, 1923, Gov. John C. Walton (D-Okla.) was convicted and permanently removed from office on a number of charges, including illegally collecting campaign funds, abusing his pardoning powers and ``general incompetence’’.
· On March 20,1929, the Senate convicted and removed Gov. Henry S. Johnston of Oklahoma from office on the charge of general incompetence, making him the second governor of the ``Sooner State’’ to be impeached. Johnston who came into office on a platform that supported the Ku Klux Klan and Prohibition, quickly loss favor with voters for hiring an ex-bank robber as a state investigator, along with his alleged political connections to Klan members.
• In April 1988, Evan Mecham (R-Ariz.) was removed from office when the Senate convicted him of obstructing justice and misusing $80,000 in state money that he was charged with funneling into his car dealership, making him the first governor to be impeached and removed from office in 59 years.
NOTE: On June 17, 1988, Mecham along with his brother Willard, were acquitted of concealing a $350,000 campaign loan.
-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
Source: The Council of State Government’ (CSG); National Governors Association (NGA)
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