This list contains three Republicans who had aspirations of vying for the GOP presidential nomination for 2012 and beyond before disgracing their offices or leaving it outright. It also contains two former democratic governors, both of whom faced corruption charges and unpopular tenures before leaving office in 2009.
Ex-Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK)
Sarah Palin, a mother of five kids, grandmother and John McCain's pick as VP on the '08 GOP presidential ticket, resigned from her only term in the summer of 2009, for reasons that dumbfounded the political world. They range from not wanting to be a "lame ducK" governor, even though her term had 18 months left, wanting to "serve" Alaskans better outside of office, and the burden of having over $500,000 of legal debt to deal with ethics complaints against her.
The move was pilloried from both parties and is seen as a blow to her chances of being a serious and qualified presidential contender in the future. She also topped the list due to the non-partisan Politifact.com naming her "death panels" claim in Congressional health care bills the biggest lie of 2009, and other reasons, including quitting a Turkey Day charity race run in Washington state to avoid her fans and lack of influential power when campaigning for NY 23rd's losing conservative party congressional candidate Doug Hoffman last November.
Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Mark Sanford, a married man and father of four young children, made the personal mistake of cheating on his wife with an Argentinian woman, lying about it by saying he was going hiking at the Appalachian Trail, and keeping the state of South Carolina leaderless for the five days he was gone in 2009, having not transferred power to the lieutenant governor. With nearly ten ethics charges against him and an official censure by his own state GOP officials for "disgracing" the governor's office and calls for resignation from national politicians (Fred Thompson) and state leaders, it has been a lousy year for Sanford, a family values-preaching conservative who had hopes for a future White House run.
Ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL)
It may seem like a long time ago but it was only just over a year ago, on December 9, 2008 that Rod Blagojevich, the 40th Governor of Illinois was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and attempted bribery. His alleged "pay-to-play" scheme to fill President-Elect Barack Obama's Senate seat forced the Illinois House to impeach him 114-1 on corruption and office misconduct charges on January 8, 2009, making him only the second ever Illinois state politician to be impeached. On a 59-0 vote on January 29, 2009, the state Senate body voted to remove him from office, ending his political career. After that, he had bizarre aspirations of being a TV reality star, which a judge denied him a chance to do. His federal trial date is set for June 3, 2010.
Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
In 2009, one-time GOP presidential hopeful and former C-Street resident John Ensign confessed to an extramarital affair with Cynthia Hampton, a former Senate campaign staffer of his. The background: When Hampton's husband and top Ensign aide Douglas confronted the senator about the affair in 2008, the politician allegedly arranged a new political consulting job for Mr. Hampton and willfully helped him ignore lobbying and ethics regulations by hiring former Ensign campaign donors as lobbying clients for him less than one year after working in the Senate.
Also, the lobbying charges, Mr. Hampton's claims of Mr. Ensign sexually harassing Cynthia and paying him off to the tune of $96,000 to keep quiet the affair could all be classified as felonies, according to ethics experts CREW. The Senate Ethics Committee and Department of Justice are currently investigating these charges.
Ex-Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ)
In the blue state of New Jersey, this former Goldman Sachs CEO had loads of campaign cash, a weak Republican opponent (Chris Christie), a successful background as senator and support from Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton. Still, Jon Corzine lost his re-election bid as governor last November to Christie due to a bad economy, independents voting Republican and corruption charges against his administration.
Sources
"Blagojevich Trial Date Set: June 3, 2010," Huffington Post, June 25, 2009 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/25/blagojevich-trial-date-se_n_220854.html
"Corruption Case A Blow To Corzine's Campaign," New York Times, July 24, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/nyregion/25jersey.html
"Ethics Committee Issues Subpoenas In Ensign Inquiry," NYT, December 4, 2009 http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/ethics-committee-issues-subpoenas-in-ensign-inquiry/
Charlie Doherty - Formerly a staff writer/researcher for independent newspaper project Media Nation, which was published daily by The Boston Globe during ...
