Rod Blagojevich, the scandal-plagued Illinois governor, was impeached by his state legislature yesterday, taking him a big step closer to being thrown out of office.

Mr Blagojevich, who was arrested on December 9 for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, now faces a trial by the state Senate, an unprecedented ignominy for an Illinois governor. The Illinois House of Representatives voted 114-1 to impeach him.

“He’s mortally wounded politically and cannot lead our state. His political life is over,” said Jack Franks, a Democratic Illinois congressman.

Later, at a rambling news conference, Mr Blagojevich repeated his refusal to resign and said that he had been impeached by the House in retaliation for trying to help the people of Illinois.

“The causes of the impeachment are because I’ve done things to fight for families," Mr Blagojevich claimed.

He said he was confident that he would be “fully exonerated” at a Senate trial.

Even if he is forced from office, Mr Blagojevich has already become a distracting sideshow for the Presidentelect as he seeks to get his economic rescue package through Congress. He has also caused the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill severe heartburn over Mr Obama’s vacant seat.

Mr Blagojevich defied his party by appointing Roland Burris, a 71-yearold African American, to the seat. Mr Obama and the Democratic leadership initially said that the appointment would not stand. It soon became obvious, however, that they had no clear constitutional grounds to block the appointment.

There was a growing outcry by the congressional black caucus, and then the unedifying spectacle of Mr Burris being refused entry to the Senate to be sworn in on Tuesday.

Mr Obama privately made clear to Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate Leader, that Mr Burris should probably be seated.

In a humiliating climbdown, Mr Reid on Wednesday paved the way for Mr Burris to enter the chamber.

Mr Blagojevich was out jogging in Chicago while the House voted to impeach him. When he returned, outdoors and in falling snow, he compared his situation to long-distance running.

He refused to answer any specific questions about the 114-1 vote, but said: “Let me simply say I feel like the old Alan Sillitoe short story The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner . . . And that’s what this is by the way, a long-distance run.”

Resisting repeated calls for him to resign, he has hired one of the city’s top defence lawyers and legal experts say that convicting him of trying to corruptly sell Mr Obama’s seat is not straightforward, because, for one thing, he never actually did so.

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