Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The next governor of Illinois may be a consumer advocate once described as an amalgam of Socialist leader Eugene Debs, labor organizer Mother Jones and government gadfly Ralph Nader.

Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn takes over if Governor Rod Blagojevich -- a Democrat facing federal corruption charges of trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat -- resigns or is removed from office.

Little-known outside of Illinois, Quinn would assume leadership of a state shaken by a scandal so sudden that Standard & Poor’s last week said the resulting political uncertainty may prompt a credit-rating cut as the government faces a $2 billion budget shortfall. Blagojevich was the fourth of the past seven governors elected in Illinois to be arrested.

Quinn, who turns 60 tomorrow, once protested government salary increases by asking supporters to flood political offices with tea bags in a Boston Tea Party-inspired protest. Charlie Wheeler, a professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said Quinn has mellowed his early populism and earned a reputation for honesty and hard work.

“He’s no longer the guy on the outside, the bomb thrower,” Wheeler said. “Despite his early days as a gadfly, he’s someone who’s able to work within the system.”

“A pragmatic Ralph Nader is how I’d describe him,” said Bill Brandt, a fellow student of Quinn’s in the 1960s at Fenwick, then an all-boys Catholic high school in Oak Park, Illinois.

New York Parallel

The political upheaval in Illinois mirrors events this year in New York, where Eliot Spitzer quit the governorship over alleged relations with a prostitute and was replaced by a relatively unknown former state senator, fellow Democrat David Paterson.

Quinn called on Blagojevich to resign, too. “He’s got to do something because our state is in crisis,” Quinn said yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said by e-mail yesterday that the governor “has no plans of resigning” today, refuting state Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s speculation that he might. Asked if he plans to step down soon, Guerrero e- mailed, “Not that I know of.” Madigan on Dec. 12 asked the state’s highest court to remove Blagojevich from office temporarily for being unfit.

‘Crime Spree’

Blagojevich, 52, was arrested Dec. 9 for what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called “a political corruption crime spree.” He and his former chief of staff, John Harris, 46, were accused of trying to sell the Senate seat, soliciting bribes and pressuring the Chicago Tribune to halt critical editorials.

Quinn and Blagojevich aren’t political allies. The two haven’t spoken in 18 months, according to Jay Stewart, Quinn’s former general counsel. Quinn didn’t return calls seeking comment for this article.

In Illinois, candidates for lieutenant governor and governor run separately in primary elections and then join the same ticket for the general campaign.

A lawyer trained at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Quinn was elected commissioner of the Cook County Board of (Property) Tax Appeals in 1982. He served as state treasurer from 1991 to 1995.

Quinn established his political profile with petition drives and an unsuccessful attempt to give citizens the power to recall public officials. He organized successful drives to reduce the size of the state legislature and to create a utility watchdog agency. To draw attention, Quinn often held press conferences on Sundays, typically a slow news day.

Small Donations

Quinn eschews large political donations. A fundraiser tonight at a Chicago restaurant will cost $100 a person, according to Taxpayers for Quinn, his political organization. In the 2008 campaign cycle, when neither sought election, Quinn raised $259,457 and Blagojevich took in $4.3 million, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform in Chicago.

After attending Fenwick High School, Quinn earned an international economics degree from Georgetown University in Washington.

He got his start in politics as an aide to former Governor Dan Walker, who walked across the state to attract attention and won office in 1972 as an opponent of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley’s political machine. Walker later was convicted of fraud involving a savings and loan.

In 1980, Illinois voters approved Quinn’s so-called Cutback Amendment, reducing the state House’s size by one-third, to 118 seats. The measure earned him enemies in the state establishment, which saw its influence reduced.

‘Death-Defying Experience’

It was Chicago Sun-Times columnist Thomas Roeser who compared him, in 2003, to Debs, Jones and Nader, a perennial presidential candidate. “Sometimes it could be a death-defying experience to get between Pat and a microphone,” his friend Brandt joked.

During Quinn’s four years as state treasurer, he earned $848 million in investment income for the state, according to his official biography. He was elected lieutenant governor in 2002 and 2006.

A Quinn administration would be a stylistic shift from Blagojevich, a detached manager who often jogged during office hours, Wheeler said. Without inviting the press, Quinn made a point of attending the funerals of Illinois soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Wheeler added.

“With Pat, there are no hidden agendas,” said David Lundy, board secretary of the Better Government Association, a group founded in 1923 at the height of Mafia influence in Chicago. “It’s all right out there for the world to see. That’s a quality that some people admire about him and others find frustrating.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Robison in Seattle at robison@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 15, 2008 00:00 EST