For some Chicagoans, fatigued by the former governor’s often circuslike legal travails, the notion of a new trial inspired only shrugs this week. Yes, they explained, Mr. Blagojevich, whose political unraveling had mortified an entire state and brought government to a standstill, ought to be tried on charges that he tried to sell the United States Senate seat that once belonged to President Obama. But no, they did not really care to watch it. Not again.
For some in this state’s Democrat-leaning political universe, the worries and threats of such a trial against a fellow Democrat also seemed to have faded. The election of Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, who served as lieutenant governor during Mr. Blagojevich’s administration, was sealed last fall. And Democrats held onto their control of both chambers of the state legislature.
Still, the possibility that new details might emerge of Mr. Blagojevich’s political dealings and from his phone conversations, secretly recorded by federal authorities, posed risks.
A new trial — and Mr. Blagojevich’s return to the headlines — certainly were not part of the inauguration script for Rahm Emanuel, a fellow Democrat and a former White House chief of staff who takes over as mayor of Chicago next month.
Mr. Emanuel, who had telephone conversations with Mr. Blagojevich and with Mr. Blagojevich’s chief of staff shortly after Mr. Obama’s election as president in 2008, received a subpoena to appear at Mr. Blagojevich’s first trial but was never called to testify.
A White House report found that Mr. Emanuel had indeed provided the names of some possible replacements to fill the Senate seat Mr. Obama would be giving up (an appointment assigned, by law, to the governor). But the report said he did not discuss Governor Blagojevich’s getting anything?in exchange for appointing a particular person.
Yet, if Mr. Blagojevich, 54, a former member of Congress and of the legislature, has shown anything since his arrest at his North Side home in December 2008 and his impeachment, it is that he defies the predictable behavior of a criminal suspect. (Since his troubles, he has sold his autograph at a comics convention, performed an Elvis Presley song at a block party and peddled pistachio nuts in a commercial.)
“You don’t know what he’s going to say,” said Kent Redfield, a political scientist at the University of Illinois. “If Blagojevich takes the stand this time, he could dirty some people up. If anybody has vulnerability to that, it’s probably Emanuel.”
Some grumble about the new trial as “a rerun,” though it will look different. Mr. Blagojevich’s legal team has shrunk. The charges have shrunk a bit, too. After a jury deadlocked on 23 of 24 counts against him last August, prosecutors streamlined the case to 20 counts, including attempted extortion and bribery, the most serious counts carrying maximum penalties of 20 years in prison.
Mr. Blagojevich’s first jury convicted him of one of the least serious charges — lying to federal agents, a conviction that could carry up to five years in prison.
Some people are hoping that the initial fury doesn’t fade entirely.
“It’s understandable that people sort of want him to just disappear,” said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which has pressed for campaign finance reporting and increased access to public records. “What concerns me is that there’s a sense on the part of some that this incredible outrage has died down, so let’s just edge back a bit on reforms.”
Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.
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