by Karl Kurtz
Today's impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich by the Illinois House of Representatives raises the question of what other states have impeached public officials in recent years. According to the Book of the States, every state except Oregon has the power to impeach the governor and other state executive and judicial officers. But for the most part the power is used sparingly.
An AP report earlier today says that only seven governors have been impeached, convicted and removed from office in the history of the country. The only one in the last 80 years was Gov. Evan Mecham in Arizona.
Of course, there is a difference between impeachment--the decision to bring charges against a public official, which is the responsibility of the house in all but two states--and conviction on those charges (and therefore removal from office), which in most states is the responsibility of the senate. As with the impeachment of President Richard Nixon by the U.S. House of Representatives, impeachment by the house may cause the accused official to resign rather than face a trial. In the case of Gov. John Rowland in Connecticut in 2004 even the initiation of impeachment proceedings may contribute to the resignation of a public official.
At NCSL we don't have comprehensive records of impeachment proceedings about public officials. However in 2001 we did an informal survey of states that generated this incomplete list of relatively recent impeachments:
- Florida: In 1978 a circuit court judge was convicted of four of five articles of impeachment. In 1975 the state insurance commissioner and treasurer was impeached, but prior to his trial in the Senate he resigned from office.
- Missouri: The secretary of state was impeached by the House of Representatives, and she was tried, convicted and removed by the state Supreme Court in 1994.
- Nebraska: The Unicameral impeached the attorney general in 1984, but he was exonerated by the state Supreme Court.
- Nevada: In 2004 the state controller was impeached and convicted, the only case in the state's history.
- New Hampshire: In 2000 the New Hampshire House impeached the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, but the Senate failed to convict him.
- Pennsylvania: In the mid-nineties, the House impeached an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and the Senate convicted on one Article and removed him from office.
- Vermont: In 1976 the sheriff of Washington County, an elected position, was impeached by the House, but the articles of impeachment were not sustained by the Senate. (This points out that in many states the legislature may also impeach local government officials.)
However incomplete, this list demonstrates that the power is used sparingly in the states.
And what about Oregon, the only state that does not have an impeachment provision? In the Beaver State public officials may be tried for incompetence, corruption, malfeasance, or delinquency in office in the same manner as criminal offenses. In other words, the people of Oregon have the same protections as other states, but the safeguard is in the courts, not the legislature.
And for the datahounds out there, the two states in which the house does not vote articles of impeachment are Alaska, where the process is reversed and the Senate votes impeachment and the House tries the case, and Nebraska, in which, because there is no house in a unicameral legislature, the Senate votes impeachment and the Supreme Court tries the case.
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