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Reid pressured Blagojevich not to appoint Jackson Jr. to Obama’s U.S. Senate seat
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Race
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| Contributor | TX DEM |
| Last Edited | TX DEM Jan 03, 2009 09:39am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Chicago Sun-Times |
| News Date | Saturday, January 3, 2009 03:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Days before Gov. Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, top Senate Democrat Harry Reid made it clear who he didn’t want in the post: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones.
Rather, Reid called Blagojevich to argue he appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Sources say the Senate majority leader pushed against Jackson and Davis — both democratic congressmen from Illinois — and against Jones — the Illinois Senate president who is the political godfather of President-elect Barack Obama — because he did not believe the three men were electable. He feared losing the seat to a Republican in a future election.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero confirmed that Reid (D-Nev.) and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) — the new chief of the Senate Democratic political operation — each called Blagojevich’s campaign office separately Dec. 3. Sources believe that at least portions of the phone conversations are on tape.
Before their contacts, Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel called Blagojevich to tell him to expect to hear from Senate leadership because they were pushing against Jackson and others, according to statements the governor made to others.
The Reid-Menendez calls came a day before a Dec. 4 conversation overheard on government wiretaps where Blagojevich says he “was getting ‘a lot of pressure’ not to appoint Candidate 5.” Candidate 5 is Jackson.
The calls reveal the varying forces directed at Blagojevich as he weighed the appointment.
Duckworth is the wounded Iraq war veteran who was tapped by Blagojevich for the state post after she lost a House race in 2006. Duckworth’s entry in the House contest was championed by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) with her campaign assisted by Emanuel, who was running the House political operation at the time |
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