Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Illinois House of Representatives impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich for abuses of power after federal prosecutors accused him of trying to auction President- elect Barack Obama’s former seat in the U.S. Senate.

The House voted 114-1 today to compel the state Senate to hold a trial to remove Blagojevich for violating the state constitution. A 67-page report underpinning the vote said the Democrat should be ousted for “scheming to obtain a personal benefit for the Senate appointment” and engaging in “abuse of office of the highest magnitude.”

Blagojevich, 52, is the first governor impeached in the fifth-most-populous U.S. state. The Illinois Senate will consider accusations that include creating health-care programs unauthorized by the Legislature and rewarding campaign contributors with jobs and contracts.

“This is a good, glad, happy day for the state of Illinois because it shows that no one is above the law,” said state Representative William Black, the deputy leader of Republicans in the House.

Blagojevich, a former prosecutor twice elected to the state’s top office, is the fourth of the past seven Illinois governors to be charged with a crime. His predecessor, Republican George Ryan, is serving 6 1/2 years in a federal prison for corruption.

Speeding the Process

Lawmakers debated the impeachment for less than two hours today in a third-floor chamber of the 133-year-old capitol building in Springfield, 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of Chicago. The edifice rests on land originally intended for Abraham Lincoln’s grave, until his wife overruled the choice and had Lincoln interred on the north side of the city.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also heads the Illinois Democratic Party, said another vote will be taken by the House on Jan. 14 after a new General Assembly is sworn in to ratify today’s decision.

A 21-member House panel studying the issue said Blagojevich implemented a $2.1 billion health-insurance program forbidden by the General Assembly, kept war veterans from state jobs, gave hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to campaign donors and created an administration that forced the General Assembly to resort to the Freedom of Information Act to obtain budget documents.

Protesters Chant

State Representative Milton Patterson, a Democrat from Chicago’s South Side, cast the sole dissenting vote. Patterson didn’t explain why he voted against impeachment.

Illinois state Senator John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat who will take over the Senate presidency on Jan. 14, told reporters that his chamber has set aside nine days for the trial of Blagojevich. Proceedings are scheduled to start Jan. 26, run six straight days, recess on Sunday, Feb. 1, and resume the following day.

The trial in the Senate will be public, said Tim Bryers, a spokesman for the chamber’s Republicans. The party’s members may privately hold conferences or “caucus.”

Thomas Fitzgerald, chief judge of Illinois Supreme Court, would preside over the trial, in which evidence would be presented to the judge and Senate members by a designee of the state’s House of Representatives. The governor’s defense team would be given the opportunity rebut the case, Cullerton said.

Under the state’s Constitution, the prosecutors need only show “cause” to remove the governor, he said. During the press conference, about 50 people marched in a circle outside the building named for four-time Illinois Governor James R. Thompson. Some held signs saying “Rod must resign” and chanted “Blago must Go.”

‘Fundamentally Fair’

The governor declined to testify before the impeachment panel during four weeks of hearings that culminated in today’s vote. According to the impeachment panel’s report, “the governor was given a fundamentally fair opportunity to present his position before the committee.”

Blagojevich said in a news conference today that he wasn’t surprised by the impeachment vote, adding that he has been “engaged in a struggle” with the House. He said he expects to be exonerated and said he is “not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing.”

The governor said he pushed the House to expand health care, and he said he was impeached for fighting for families.

“I’ve pushed and prodded the system” he said. Blagojevich brought on stage with him residents he said had benefited from his initiatives, adding “I have a job to do for the people.” He took no questions.

“It was typical theater from Rod Blagojevich,” said Illinois state Senator Christine Radogno of Lemont, who attended the press conference. She will lead the senate’s Republican minority in the new session.

‘Total Chaos’

“We have to live by the rules. If everyone just says, ‘what the heck, it doesn’t need to apply to me because I think what I’m doing is the right thing,’ we would have total chaos,” she said.

The issue in the senate trial, Radogno said, will be whether Blagojevich abided by the rules of proper governance.

Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald accused Blagojevich and his former chief of staff, John Harris, in a 78- page criminal complaint of trying to auction Obama’s Senate post for $1.5 million, an ambassadorship, a Cabinet job or a position running a nonprofit institution. Harris has resigned and Blagojevich has ignored calls by fellow Democrats including Obama and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to step down.

Children’s Hospital

Blagojevich also tried to pressure a children’s hospital executive to contribute $50,000 in return for state funds for children’s health, prosecutors said.

The governor threatened to withhold state help from Chicago-based Tribune Co.’s effort to sell Wrigley Field unless the company’s flagship newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, fired editorial writers who began calling for Blagojevich’s removal in September 2007, prosecutors said. The Tribune Co. sought bankruptcy court protection from creditors on Dec. 8.

In court filings unsealed today, Blagojevich accused Fitzgerald of depriving him of the chance for a fair trial by making improper public statements when announcing his arrest. The governor, through his attorneys, asked U.S. District Judge James Holderman in Chicago to disqualify Fitzgerald and his deputies from presenting evidence against the governor to a federal grand jury and said the grand jury should be disbanded.

Fitzgerald, at a Dec. 9 press conference, announced the arrest that day of Blagojevich and Harris for what the prosecutor described as a “political corruption crime spree.”

Grand Jury

“The wide dissemination of the words spoken at the press conference, as quoted above, could not help but prejudice” the governor in the eyes of the grand jury, his lawyers said in court filings on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 that were unsealed today.

Madigan and impeachment panel chairwoman and state Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, a Democrat, accelerated efforts to remove Blagojevich after his Dec. 30 appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate post the governor was accused of trying to sell.

Burris, 71, told the panel yesterday that the governor never asked him for money or favors in exchange for the appointment. Burris said he accepted the post during a Dec. 28 telephone conversation, after consulting with family and friends.

Court Ruling

The Illinois Supreme Court, in a nine-page decision published today, said no further action is required by Secretary of State Jesse White, a Democrat, or any other state official to validate Burris’s appointment. White had said he would file but not countersign the governor’s appointment, prompting Burris to seek an order from the court.

Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the chamber, said Obama’s former seat should remain empty until the end of Blagojevich’s impeachment trial so the next governor can make the appointment. He said never in Senate history has there been a waiver of the requirement that the secretary of state’s signature be part of the appointment process.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Carroll in Springfield, Illinois, at Jcarroll8@bloomberg.netAndrew Harris in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 9, 2009 21:51 EST