 Born: December 10, 1956
Birth State: Illinois
Party: Democrat
Spouse: Patricia Blagojevich
Family: Married Patricia Mell; two children
Religion: Eastern Orthodox
School(s): Northwestern University; Pepperdine University
Address: State Capitol
207 Statehouse
Springfield, IL
62706
Phone: 217/782-6830
Fax: 217/524-4049
Governor's Web Site
State Web Site
Higher Office(s) Served: Representative
ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH was born on the northwest side of Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1979 and earned a law degree from Pepperdine University in 1983. After holding political offices in the Illinois General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives, Blagojevich was elected Governor of Illinois in November 2002 and reelected in November 2006. During his term as Governor, Blagojevich enacted important changes that expanded access to healthcare, improved education, bolstered public safety and spurred growth in Illinois’ economy. Blagojevich’s vision and efforts made affordable health insurance available to all children under the award-winning All Kids program. He also raised the eligibility for Family Care to provide more low-wage working parents with adequate health care, and launched Illinois Cares Rx which protects Illinois seniors from gaps in the federal Medicare Part D program. Blagojevich has made education a top priority, investing $3.8 billion in new funding for Illinois schools during his first term. He also established Preschool for All which will offer free, high-quality preschool to every three and four-year old, starting with those most at-risk of academic failure. Because of his dedication to early childhood education, funding for preschool has gone up 75% over the past 5 years, giving 35,000 at-risk kids the opportunity to get a head-start on a good education. Since 2004, when Blagojevich raised the minimum wage to $6.50 an hour, Illinois has added more than 150,000 new jobs. In 2006, he won legislative approval for two additional increases in Illinois’ minimum wage that will take effect in July of 2007 and 2010. In addition, during his first term, the state invested more than $60 million to advance the skills of more than 230,000 Illinois workers at almost 4,700 companies through a vital workforce-training program to ensure that Illinois employees have relevant skills both today and in future. Blagojevich's public safety initiatives are far-reaching, taking extra steps to protect Illinoisans from homeland security threats, identity theft and hate crimes. During his first term, the Governor launched a new Internet Crimes Unit, which is dedicated solely to combating online crime; hired 320 new frontline Illinois State Troopers; and dramatically reduced a long-standing backlog of untested DNA evidence by launching a new initiative that enables the Illinois State Police (ISP) to perform all forensic DNA analysis in-house. Blagojevich and his wife Patti have two young daughters, Amy and Annie. |
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