Burris won’t run for full Senate term
Announcement expected today
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WASHINGTON - Senator Roland Burris, whose deep ties to former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich seemed to doom his Senate tenure from the start, will not run for a full Senate term in 2010. The move increases Democrats’ chances of holding on to the former Senate seat of President Obama.
Burris has begun informing fellow Democrats about his decision and is expected to make an official announcement today, a Democratic official and a friend of Burris’s said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because Burris has yet to announce his decision.
Burris issued a news release last evening that said he planned a “major announcement’’ at an event in Chicago today.
Burris was appointed by Blagojevich to fill the Senate seat vacated by Obama. His appointment was criticized from the moment it was announced and prompted immediate calls for Burris to resign.
Those calls intensified when Blagojevich was arrested, in part on allegations that he tried to sell the Senate seat. Burris changed his story about the circumstances of his appointment, first saying he never offered anything to Blagojevich, then admitting that he tried and failed to raise money for the then governor.
A wiretap released later showed Burris bartering with Blagojevich’s brother Robert and a top adviser.
Burris has been treated as something of a pariah in the Senate.
