Blagojevich, a Democrat, was convicted in 2011 by a federal jury on more than a dozen counts, including an attempt to sell the Senate seat vacated when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, and was often used to lampoon the machine politics the state has long been known for. But Trump senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has internally championed pardons and commutations, reportedly suggested pardoning Blagojevich would appeal to Democrats.
And despite the political scandal that ended his career more than a decade ago, what black communities also remember about Blagojevich was how he helped diversify the government workforce.
“There are people who feel comfortable with our community and look comfortable with our community, and it’s not a put-on or strained. And that was Blagojevich,” said Cobb, who argued there are some African Americans who believe Blagojevich got such a long sentence because he was friendly to the black community.
Democratic state Rep. LaShawn Ford echoed the sentiment, saying Blagojevich wasn’t just good at schmoozing, he endeared himself to the African American community for hiring black people in his administration and pushing for policies that benefited minorities.
“He hired a lot of African Americans, he supported early childhood education programs that created jobs and allowed parents to go to work, and you saw blacks get contracts to agencies more than you ever did before and maybe even since,” Ford said. It wasn’t about campaign photo ops, he said. Blagojevich earned a reputation for follow-through.
Len Goodman, Blagojevich’s attorney, confirmed with POLITICO that Trump’s team relayed in a phone call that Blagojevich’s sentence was commuted. But he doesn’t know when the former governor will be released.
Many of the state’s top Democrats were outraged by Trump’s decision. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker found Trump’s actions particularly offensive after his own calls to stamp out corruption in a state swirling with federal investigations and indictments against a sitting Chicago alderman and recent members of the state Legislature.
Source: politico.com
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