Chicago/Illinois Corruption Numbers, Cont'd.
| Wed Dec. 10, 2008 10:50 AM PST
Yesterday I noted that three of the last five Illinois governors (including Blagojevich) have been charged with some kind of major wrongdoing. Today, Slate points out that it isn't just the governors; politicians across the state are caught with their hands in the cookie jar with a stunning frequency.
...in the last three decades, at least 79 local elected officials have been convicted of a crime, including three governors, one mayor, and a whopping 27 aldermen from the Windy City. What makes Chicago so corrupt?
...to some degree because the city never had the benefit of a reformist mayor like New York City's Fiorello LaGuardia, who had political ties to FDR. Instead, Chicago moved towards a one-party system that made it even more vulnerable to corruption: The city's last Republican mayor left office in 1931. Today, not even the Democratic primaries are competitive—for the most part, once you're in office, you stay there. The weak campaign finance laws in Illinois probably helped to stave off competition in recent years....
How do we know that Chicago's so corrupt? The most straightforward way to measure corruption is to check the number of convicted local officials. Between 1995 and 2004, 469 politicians from the federal district of Northern Illinois were found guilty of corruption. The only districts with higher tallies were central California (which includes L.A.), and southern Florida (which includes Miami).
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Comments
As an Arizona resident, I think we can compete with Illinois on corruption. Two of our last five governors have been removed form office. One (Evan Meacham) was impeached and convicted. He committed multiple personal and political acts of corruption, but beat the rap in court refusing to testify. Fife Symington resigned. He was indicted and convicted for clear-cut business fraud. His conviction was tossed on a technicality and he got a last-minute pardon form Clinton. Two out of five may not sound too bad, but of the other three two were replacement governors and ALL of them were/are women.
We also had our own AZ-scam roundup of state legislators, and assorted treasurers, and congressmen (Renzi) with legal problems. And don't forget the Keating 5. We're the only state with 2 senators in that bunch.
And we only have 1/3 to 1/2 the population of Illinois. I think we really have potential.
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