ABC 7 Chicago's Chuck Goudie did some fine reporting this evening about Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his money problems. Blago makes $177,000 a year. One of the benefits of being governor is free use of the Executive Mansion in Springfield. But he won't live there, claiming family concerns, although Patti Blagojevich's real estate business--much of it with convicted swindler Antoin "Tony" Rezko, may have kept Illinois' first couple living on Chicago's Northwest Side. Goudie looks at Blago's income, and pairs it with the family's mortgages on their Chicago house, the condo they still own from Blagojevich's days as a congressman, as well as the governor's significant legal expenses, and it's pretty easy to see why the foul-mouthed couple is hurting for money.
Here's some more Illinois irony: As Bill Baar pointed out in his blog in October, the Blagojeviches could have lived for free in Springfield for the last six years.
It's open for tours three days a week, but since Blago became governor, the mansion, pictured above, sits empty. But not this week. Goudie reports that Ed Genson, the governor's attorney, stayed in the mansion while he was at the capitol defending Blagojevich.
I'm sure there were plenty of vacant hotel rooms in Springfield this week.
Related post:
Thirty hours in Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois
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7 comments:
Someone should have been working on selling that Washington condo. No reason to hold onto that.
Yes, he could have dumped that a few years ago. DuPont Circle is nice, and the economy hasn't effected Washington as much as other places. Unless ppl were buying condos (as they did too much here) for investment reasons.
That mansion is one sweet Pad.
How old is that mansion?
Built in 1855.
Maybe Blago wouldn't live in the mansion because he heard it was haunted... seriously, there are stories claiming that the ghost of Mrs. Catherine Yates, whose husband Richard Yates was governor during the Civil War, still hangs around on one of the top floors and does stuff like switch lights on and off, etc.
Nothing really scary but enough that people tell stories about it.
Ghost or no ghost, I'd live there just for the gorgeous gardens and grounds alone...
Thanks...weird twist to the story about the houses isn't it?
The Gov could have spared himself considerable grief if he had just moved there to begin with.
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