A long article. I just listed the rankings. Louisiana (my dad’s family’s home state) is no surprise. A couple of Louisiana governors went to prison. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was convicted of corruption and is due for sentencing any day now. Mississippi is one of the poorest states and their ranking doesn’t surprise me.
I am surprised others like Tenn is on the list. Seems like a prosperous state when I’ve visited. Great roads. Lots of tourists visit the Smokey mountains and Nashville. Yet a #3 ranking? Alaska? Is Palin even smart enough to be corrupt?
How about the other states. You know why they are on the list?
I am from Louisiana originally. It is indeed corrupt, always has been and probably always will be because much of the population doesn’t see it as an issue to be concerned about. They re-elected Edwin Edwards as governor after he freely admitted that he was guilty in corruption scandals. The typical public response was, “Well, he is a crook but at least he is honest about it.”. Unsurprisingly, he is in the federal pen now on another racketeering conviction and still has a lot of political support but he is too old to run for governor again even if he ever gets out. I do not think the current governor, Bobby Jindal, is corrupt in the least.
Illinois is no surprise either. They are at least as open about their corruption as Louisiana is and quite proud of it at times. I am surprised at the notable omission of Rhode Island. It is blatantly corrupt as well and rounds out my personal trifecta of obviously corrupt states along with Louisiana and Illinois. It is another state where corruption is openly acknowledged and generally accepted by the public.
I am not sure what is going on in states like Kentucky and Tennessee. They don’t have a reputation for excessive corruption but maybe they have some strange ways of doing things in Appalachia.
Good point. Michigan could probably land a top spot today if the recent data was added. It has a multi-front corruption campaign going or at least did. Between the unions, the massive auto industry bailouts and the complete economic collapse of the city of Detroit, Michigan deserves to be on the list. Maybe not so many people have been convicted yet but that doesn’t mean it isn’t as corrupt as they come.
The politicians in New York have been smart. They’ve figured out that if either party tries to monopolize the corruption the other party will rat them out. So they’ve quietly divided the state and each party is corrupt in its own half and doesn’t poach or point fingers at the other side’s half. Everyone makes money and nobody goes to prison. It’s bipartisan corruption at its finest.
Tennessee had Gov. Ray Blanton, who was sent to prison for selling liquor licenses, and who sold pardons. More recently, a large FBI sting called “Operation Tennessee Waltz” netted 4 state senators, a couple county commissioners (large counties - counties for Chattanooga and Memphis), and other various officials. John Ford, one of those who was sent to prison, has a brother who was a congressman and who was indicted on bank fraud charges. When he resigned from his seat, his son was elected to it.
In a town in my county, the mayor sat for 40 years. When he was about to be convicted of fraud, he stepped down and his identical twin took his seat, saying he’d run the town just like his brother did.
"Vote-buying is deeply rooted in Eastern Kentucky’s political culture, helping to make the region a hot spot for federal public-corruption cases.
From 2002 through 2011, there were 237 public-corruption convictions in the federal Eastern District of Kentucky, compared to 65 in the western district, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It wasn’t the first decade in which the eastern half of the state had one of the highest rates of corruption convictions per capita in the United States.
Chronic poverty and cynicism about government help explain the history of vote fraud. Control over scarce jobs by local politicians also has played a role, allowing power brokers to influence elections with cash or threats. And with small populations and many people related through blood or marriage, kinship and friendship have long created potentially compromising relationships between officials and criminals.
AFAIK Arkansas had its first big corrupt politician last year. Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner was accepting bribes to award state contracts. Just plain stupid and she’ll eventually get prison time. She’s already resigned and been replaced.
