Former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar held a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs in Urbana to discuss the arrest of current governor Rod Blagojevich.

“This is a very sad day for the state of Illinois,” he said. “I would like to reassure the people of Illinois, contrary to some of the things I hear on national media, all of state government is not corrupt.”

Edgar, who served from 1991 until 1999, said Blagojevich should resign his position and that state government needs to usher in a period of healing and recovery.

He added that he hoped the Illinois electorate would use this experience as proof that state elections need to be taken seriously.

“They have to really know these candidates and not just be taken in my a 30 second commercial,” he said. “The public is just going to have to say, ‘Enough is enough.”