Roland Burris

Roland Burris (born Aug. 3, 1937, Centralia, Ill., U.S.) is an American Democratic politician who was the first African American elected to statewide office in Illinois. His appointment as U.S. senator (2009–10) to fill the seat vacated by Pres. Barack Obama made him the fourth African American to serve in the Senate since Reconstruction.

Burris grew up in downstate Illinois, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Southern Illinois University in 1959. He received a law degree from Howard University in 1963, and, after moving to Chicago, became a bank examiner for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He left the job a year later to work in the tax division of Continental Illinois, then one of the 10 largest banks in the United States. While there, he made his first foray into politics, with a failed bid for the Illinois House of Representatives in 1968. Having risen to the rank of vice president, Burris left the bank in 1973 to join the cabinet of Illinois Gov. Dan Walker. After an unsuccessful campaign for state comptroller in 1976, he worked as director of Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH in 1977. In 1978 Burris ran again for state comptroller, this time winning and becoming the first African American to be elected to statewide office in Illinois.

Burris easily won reelection in 1982 and 1986, and in 1990 he campaigned for the office of Illinois attorney general. That November he narrowly defeated the Republican candidate, Jim Ryan. While in office (1991–95), Burris established himself as a quietly effective administrator. His electoral fortunes waned in succeeding years, though, with three unsuccessful bids for governor (1994, 1998, 2002) and a crushing defeat in the 1995 race for mayor of Chicago—in which Burris ran as an independent—that pitted him against popular incumbent Richard M. Daley.

The election of Barack Obama as president in November 2008 left open one of Illinois’s seats in the U.S. Senate, and the power to appoint Obama’s successor fell to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Before the appointment could be made, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed criminal charges against Blagojevich, alleging, among other things, that he had solicited donations from potential candidates in a “pay for play” scheme. Nevertheless, on Dec. 30, 2008, Blagojevich appointed Burris to serve as Illinois’s newest senator. Burris’s appointment met with controversy at both the state and federal level. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White refused to sign the paperwork that would endorse Burris, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that anyone appointed by Blagojevich would not be seated.

On Jan. 6, 2009, Burris arrived at the Capitol for the opening of the 111th Congress. He was refused entry on the grounds that his credentials had not been properly authorized by state officials (specifically, they lacked the signature of the secretary of state). Burris evoked sympathy in a rain-soaked press conference outside the Capitol, and public opinion shifted to his support. Over the following days, Senate leaders met with Burris and his legal team, and Burris was officially sworn in on Jan. 15, 2009. In February, however, he faced more controversy after revealing that, prior to his appointment as senator, he had been in contact with several of Blagojevich’s associates and had tried unsuccessfully to raise money for the governor (Blagojevich was impeached in January). Burris had failed to mention these dealings during his testimony before the state’s House Special Investigative Committee in early January. In November 2009 he was admonished by the Senate ethics committee for “providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading, or incomplete information” concerning his appointment. The committee also found that a November 2008 phone call between Burris and Robert Blagojevich, the governor’s brother, was inappropriate.

Burris’s difficulties continued in 2010 as a federal appeals court ruled that, in accordance with the Seventeenth Amendment, Illinois was required to hold a special election to fill Obama’s seat. It was subsequently decided that the special election would take place concurrently with the general election on Nov. 2, 2010. The winner would hold the seat until the new Congress convened in January 2011. Burris, who earlier had announced that he would not seek a second term, sought to have his name included on the special-election ballot. A court, however, ruled that only candidates seeking the full six-year term were eligible. Burris’s attempts to appeal the decision were unsuccessful. He left the Senate on Nov. 29, 2010, when Republican Mark Kirk was sworn into office.