As Blagojevich Case Drags On, Ethics Issues Linger, Too

Former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, with his wife, Patti, spoke to reporters Tuesday after a verdict at his corruption trial.

By MONICA DAVEY and EMMA GRAVES FITZSIMMONS

CHICAGO – This state’s long, troubled, expensive episode with Rod R. Blagojevich, the former governor, appears far from over.

But as prosecutors prepare to retry Mr. Blagojevich on the most serious corruption charges against him – charges that a federal jury found itself deadlocked over on Tuesday – one thing does seem to have come and gone: the impetus to cleanse Illinois’s long-derided political system.

That system molded the career of Mr. Blagojevich, as well as that of his predecessor as governor, George Ryan, who is already serving a prison sentence for corruption, and, literally, hundreds of others convicted of public corruption crimes in recent decades.