[Cannon Shell]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...DS=blagojevich

By DOUGLAS BELKIN
CHICAGO—The night before he was elected president, Barack Obama told an emissary to suggest that former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appoint Mr. Obama's close friend to fill his U.S. Senate seat, a union leader testified Tuesday in federal court.

Tom Balanoff, an official with the Service Employees International Union and Mr. Obama's purported emissary, testified that Mr. Obama told him on the telephone that he had two criteria for the Senate appointment: He wanted someone who was good for the residents of Illinois and someone who could hold onto the seat in 2010.

Mr. Balanoff also said Mr. Obama told him he wouldn't publicly support any particular person but that he believed Valerie Jarrett, now a senior adviser in the White House, would meet those criteria.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he had no comment on the testimony.

Mr. Balanoff testified that when he spoke with Mr. Blagojevich, the governor raised the possibility of being named a member of Mr. Obama's cabinet.

Mr. Balanoff said he understood Mr. Blagojevich to say that, if he were named secretary of Health and Human Services, he would appoint Ms. Jarrett, Mr. Obama's friend and confidante, to the vacant Senate seat.

"That's not going to happen," Mr. Balanoff recalled telling Mr. Blagojevich, according to the Associated Press.

Mr. Blagojevich, he said, responded by saying, "Is that because [of] all the investigations around me?''

Mr. Blagojevich, 53 years old, has pleaded not guilty to scheming to sell or trade Mr. Obama's former Senate seat and to plotting to launch a racketeering operation within the governor's office.

Mr. Obama and his staff addressed the Blagojevich matter during the presidential transition, in December 2008.

"I have never spoken to the governor on this subject. I'm confident that no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat," Mr. Obama said at the time.

Mr. Obama's reported discussion with Mr. Balanoff was not addressed in a report written by then-incoming White House counsel Greg Craig in December 2008 that found Mr. Obama had not had any contacts with Mr. Blagojevich or his staff about the Senate seat.

Mr. Balanoff also testified that when he raised the notion of appointing Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias to the Senate seat, Mr. Blagojevich rejected him with several expletives, saying Mr. Giannoulias routinely bad-mouthed him.

Mr. Giannoulias's campaign spokeswoman, Kathleen Strand, said the two weren't close because Mr. Giannoulias consistently opposed Mr. Blagojevich.

"The former governor's response and expletive-laced tirade says all you need to know about the relationship between them," Ms. Strand said.

Mr. Giannoulias is the Democratic nominee for the seat and is running against Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk.

Roland Burris, whom Mr. Blagojevich ultimately appointed to the Senate seat, has said he wouldn't run.