Rod Blagojevich
Rod R. Blagojevich, a Democrat, is the current and 40th governor of the state of Illinois. He was born on December 10, 1956, in Chicago. Before being elected as governor, Blagojevich served as Cook County Assistant State's Attorney and then Representative for Illinois' 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives (elected in 1996)[1].
On December 9th, 2008, Mr. Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges for attempting to sell the recently vacated U. S. Senate seat of Barack Obama. [2] Obama's involvement, if any, is unknown, but conservatives have claimed that the media's insistence of his innocence is evidence of a liberal bias. Blagojevich is known to have had at least two conversations with Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
On January 9, 2009, the Illinois House of Delegates voted, by a vote of 114-1, to impeach the Governor. He will stand trial before the State Senate as early as the end of the month.