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'''Roland Burris''' (b. 1937), a [[liberal]] [[Democrat]], is the junior U.S. Senator from [[Illinois]]. He has announced he will not seek reelection in 2010. In 1978 he became the first [[African American]] elected to statewide office in Illinois, and in 1990 was elected state attorney general. Since then he lost a series of primary elections and was considered a minor player in Illinois politics. Burris was named by Illinois Governor [[Rod Blagojevich]] to fill the vacant [[U.S. Senate]] seat of President-elect [[Barack Obama]], causing enormous uproar because Blagojevich was being impeached for trying to sell that same seat. Blagojevich was convicted and removed from office in January 2009.
Senate Democrats promised not to seat anyone named by Blagojevich, because of the taint associated with him. Therefore on Jan. 6, 2009, Burris was denied entry to the Senate chambers as he tried to claim the seat.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/06/burris/index.html</ref>
Legally, however, his claim to the seat seemed goodstrong, because it depended on Blagojevich being governor, which he was.
On Jan. 12, 2009, he was finally certified by the Senate.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/12/burris-certified-obamas-vacated-senate-seat/]</ref>
Burris was seated after promising to testify truthfully to the impeachment committee of the Illinois legislature, which investigated Blagojevich.
However , Burris later admitted that he did not testify truthfully to the committee while under oath. The Democratic speaker of the state legislature has called for an investigation, which may possibly lead to criminal charges of perjury. In Washington , Senate officials are investigating investigated the situation and it may lead to his expulsion from the Senate. One state representative, a Democrat, sighed that Burris:
:"wasn’t forthcoming, and that’s the bottom line. I feel betrayed. The real problem here is the question of trust for the citizens of Illinois. We were supposed to rise to the occasion and, again, Illinois becomes the laughingstock for the nation."<ref>John Chase and Rick Pearson, "Burris changes story on Senate seat," [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/chi-roland-burris-rod-blagojevich-090214,0,334648.story ''Chicago Tribune'' Feb. 14, 2009]; Natasha Korecki and Dave McKinney, "Illinois lawmakers mull Burris perjury probe," [http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/02/illinois_lawmakers_mull_burris.html ''Chicago Sun-Times'' Feb. 14, 2009]; Dirk Johnson and Monica Davey, "Burris Tried to Raise Money for Blagojevich' [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/us/politics/18illinois.html?hp ''New York Times'' Feb. 17, 2009] </ref>
== References ==
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burris, Roland}}
[[Category:Illinois]]
[[Category:United States Senators]]
[[Category:United States Appointed Officials]]
[[Category:Corruption]]
[[Category:Obama Administration]]
