Eddie And I Interviewed Rod Blagojevich Last Week And He Was Electric

Last year I watched a really well-done documentary on Hulu called "Being Blago" that was a three-part series documenting Rod Blagojevich's rise and fall in Illinois politics. 

I blogged about it because I thought it showed a side I had never seen of the former Governor and did a really good job of showing sides other than the one the mass media painted during his indictment and two trials. (It was produced by ABC Chicago, but you would never know because of how unbias and objective it was.).

As Eddie would go on to point out during our interview with him several times, the documentary had you bouncing back and forth almost the whole time asking yourself, "was he guilty?" or "was he the victim of a takedown?". I still don't know and I don't know if we ever will.

It's fucking Illinois politics.

What I do know though, is what I knew then after watching it -

You might be asking, "Dante, how and why the fuck do you know so much about a former disgraced Illinois Governor?"

Well for one, when I first came to Illinois, the Blagojevich debacle was in full swing. I remember thinking how casual and unsurprised everybody here was about the whole thing. Like it was truly just par for the course. "Yah, that's what Illinois Governors do." 

After all, we're talking about a place where "four of Illinois’ past 10 governors spending time in federal prison. An additional two governors were prosecuted for wrongdoing but acquitted at trial. Even current Gov. J.B. Pritzker has come under federal investigation for a toilet removal scheme that resulted in property tax breaks at one of his Gold Coast mansions."

So in a weird way that fascinated me.

Somebody in his circle read the blog, reached out to me, and put us in touch. 

Given that the Chicago Mayoral Election Runoff is tomorrow (REMINDER TO GET OFF YOUR ASS AND VOTE IF YOU LIVE IN CHICAGO. THIS ONE MATTERS BIG TIME), I hit him up and asked if he'd be interested in coming on Eddie's Dog Walk.

If you haven't watched it yet, I promise you you won't be disappointed.

I don't care if you think he did what he was accused of and found guilty of or not. The guy is hilarious and had some really incredible stories. 

I wish we could have went another hour with him because it felt like he was just getting started.

He also had some great words from the wise to the kids out there.

REMINDER TO VOTE IN CHICAGO TOMORROW FOR THE MAYORAL RUNOFF. 

The race is likely to go down to the wire, and could hinge on who does the better job of getting their voters to the polls.

Severe weather is possible on Election Day, specifically the afternoon. Elections officials are aware of that and they're asking voters to vote as soon as possible if they can.

“The National Weather Service is predicting damaging winds and hail as well as potential tornadoes for the afternoon and evening on Election Day, April 4th. If they can, we urge Chicago voters to take advantage of the last day of Early Voting this Monday, April 3rd and to return their Vote By Mail ballots back to any Secure Dropbox in the city. Don’t delay and vote today,” said Max Bever, director of public information for the Chicago Board of Elections.

The Chicago Board of Elections says more than 154,000 early ballots have been cast in person and 95,000 vote-by-mail ballots have been returned, with many more are outstanding. That's a total of nearly 250,000 votes already cast in the runoff election.

You can find your polling place here. Polls open 6am and close at 7pm. Get it done.