Question about your previous governor. (Chicago, Springfield: attorney, home, schools)

[D-Towner]

How was the previous governor able to live in Chicago while being the Governor of Illinois? Springfield is quite far from Chicago and I would think that being the Governor of that State would mean a daily commitment to your place of work.

[trailerguy]

This was our first sign of trouble.

In the first place, he spent very little time in Springfield, usually working from home or his office in the State Building in downtown Chicago, only going to Springfield when it was absolutely unavoidable. When he did go to Springfield, he had the state's corporate jet fly him back and forth every day at a cost of $5,000 per trip. It is to our eternal shame that we tolerated it as long as we did.

He claimed he wouldn't move his family because his child was in a good school in Chicago. (Springfield has excellent schools.) If you read the US Attorney's indictment it would appear he wanted to be near the big money interests in Chicago for less than honorable reasons.

The state constitution requires that the constitutional officers maintain a permanent residence at the seat of government. We should have enforced that. Illinois has a beautiful, elegant and historic Executive Mansion. I found it offensive that he refused to live in it. Hopefully we have learned our lesson and never let a governor take advantage of this state like that again.

[linicx]

A- The Governor's Mansion in Springfield is the offical residence of the governor.
B - He refused to move citing among other reasons "there is nothing to do in Springfield."

That RodBlog continued to act like the spoiled, petulant two year old he is did nothing to endear him to his asociates or to the tax payer. In the end he was ousted by his own ccogress twice - with no "nay" votes cast. The first vote impeached him; the second vote prevents him from ever holding a public office in Illinois again.

[Scio42]

Ah, good ol' Blago.... Blagojevich was able to live in Chicago because 1) He kept an office in Chicago and tried to do as much of his work as governor as he could from there 2) When he really HAD to come to Springfield, he traveled by private jet (mostly at the taxpayer's expense) from Chicago. Often times, he would fly from Chicago in the morning, spend 5 hours in Springfield and then fly home on the same day.

The reason he gave was that he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his family and it would be a hardship on his wife's career if they moved. However, the belief is that his wife pitched a fit and refused to leave Chicago for a "downstate nowhere town".

Unforutnately, Blago's absence in Springfield is not unique, just the most blatant, worst case example. There's an attitude held by some in Chicago that Chicago IS Illinois and there's nothing south of I-80. Many past Illinois governors that hailed from Chicagoland have also spent far more of their time in Chicago than Springfield. The difference was, they at least kept the illusion of living in the governor's mansion (e.g. being there for state functions, staying there during important legislative sessions). Jim Edgar (a downstate politician) was probably the last governor that really lived in the Governor's Mansion.

It's too bad, the governor's mansion is really quite a nice, elegant, historic structure.

[cubssoxfan]

Because all of us in Illinois are very wealthy and we do not mind paying mind-blowing taxes and having our money wasted by corrupt public officials All part of the wonderfully efficient, Democratic-Machine politics