{news} Rich Whitney, former GP candidate for Illinois governor, comments on arrest of Gov. Blagojevich

[Tim McKee]

Note: Rich's name is already showing up in articles.

For immediate release
December 9, 2008

Contact:

Rich Whitney: 618-549-5159 x 138
Patrick Kelly, Illinois Green Party: 773-203-9631

Whitney for Governor
P.O. Box 3803, Carbondale, IL 62902
www.whitneyforgov.org

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

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:

We've all heard the expression, "I hate to tell you but I told you
so." But in this case, I honestly don't 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.

Now we're even deeper in the hole financially and we have truly hit
bottom – I hope, anyway – in terms of corruption in government.

In announcing the criminal charges against Blagojevich today, Robert
D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the FBI,
stated that they "reveal that the office of the Governor has become
nothing more than a vehicle for self-enrichment, unrestricted by party
affiliation and taking Illinois politics to a new low. While I
understand the sentiment, I would respectfully remind Mr. Grant, and
Illinois voters, that there is one political party that has stood up
for the principle of not accepting any corporate campaign
contributions whatsoever, and that has stood firmly on a platform of
making serious campaign ethics reform a top priority. And that is the
Illinois Green Party.

I would also remind voters that this problem goes beyond the
corruption of one man. This is a systemic problem that demands a
systemic solution. The people of this State need to mobilize to gain
control over what is supposed to be their government. And the way to
do that is by building a grass-roots political party that is beholden
and accountable only to the people, not the same big-moneyed special
interests who have made practice of buying and selling politicians.

As an attorney, I have combated illegal job patronage. As a candidate,
I called for all non-policy-making State jobs to be selected on the
basis of objective criteria by an independent bureau. I also promised
to appoint an Inspector General from an opposition party, to prevent
and root out illegal job patronage and help remove the cloud of
corruption over our State. I advocated the formation of a Citizens'
Budget Review Commission, to review proposed budget proposals to help
ferret out wasteful pork spending and political favoritism. And I
called for campaign contribution limits of $500 per candidate per
campaign.

And of course, as with all Green Party candidates, I declined to
accept any corporate campaign contributions – and advocated making a
ban on corporate contributions the law of our State.

Today's 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 – 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 doesn't demonstrate the need
for the people to embrace and build the Green Party – a true party of,
by and for the people – I don't know what will.

~END~

Approved by Rich Whitney for Governor
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******************************************
Tim McKee, Manchester CT, main number cell-860-778-1304, 860-643-2282
 National Commitee member of the Green Party of the United States and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of CT.
BLOG-http://thebiggreenpicture.blogspot.com

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