Former Green Party Gubernatorial Candidate Rich Whitney on the arrest and criminal charges against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich

Published in the Independent Political Report

Carbondale civil rights attorney and 2006 Green Party candidate for Governor Rich Whitney has issued the following statement today on the arrest and criminal charges against Governor Rod Blagojevich. Whitney has not formally announced himself as a candidate for governor in 2010
but has publicly acknowledged he is making preparations for such a run:

Weíve all heard the expression, ìI hate to tell you but I told you so.î But in this case, I honestly donít hate to say it: We did tell you so. While I did not make any specific allegations against Mr.
Blagojevich during the campaign, every informed Illinoisan knew that pay-for-play was endemic in our State and that illegal job patronage had not stopped but had gone underground. But it was only the Whitney campaign and the other campaigns of the Illinois Green Party that raised the issue of serious campaign ethics reform, front and center. Indeed, one of my campaign themes was to clean up government, along with cleaning up the environment and the budget mess.

Todayís news is but the latest symptom of a much more pervasive disease. The Democratic Party has had complete control of Illinois State government for several years now ñ and everyone can see for themselves that it has given us a completely dysfunctional government that has now led us into the abyss. Yet the Republican Party is just as cravenly supportive of the same corporatist agenda; they have simply been even less effective politically.

If the state of Illinois politics today doesnít demonstrate the need for the people to embrace and build the Green Party ñ a true party of, by and for the people ñ I donít know what will.

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