by Frank James
It's hard to lose a bad reputation, especially when it's well deserved. And Chicago and Illinois politicians certainly have done enough over the decades, and in the past few days judging by the federal case against Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to earn their reputations for corruption.
But as I wrote during the presidential campaign, political corruption is the dirty little secret not of just Illinois politics but American politics. True, it isn't on such a gargantuan scale as to create an entirely dysfunctional society as is the case for so many developing nations.
But it exists to such a degree in so many places that U.S. Attorneys who handle public corruption cases are probably among the few Americans with real job security these days.
A USA Today story examines the notion of whether Illinois is the most corrupt state and finds the statistics, at least in terms of convictions per capita, don't bear that out. Using USA Today's approach, North Dakota is the most corrupt state.
An excerpt of the USA Today story:
WASHINGTON -- Its largest city is legendary for machine-style politics and its elected leaders have been under investigation for years, but by one measure, Illinois is not even close to the nation's most-corrupt state.
North Dakota, it turns out, may hold that distinction instead.
Federal authorities arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday after a wiretap allegedly recorded him scheming to make money on his appointment to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama. Blagojevich, a Democrat, ran for election in part on cleaning up after his predecessor, Republican George Ryan, who was convicted in 2006 of racketeering, bribery and extortion.
"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States it's certainly one hell of a competitor," Robert Grant, head of the FBI's Chicago office, said Tuesday.
On a per-capita basis, however, Illinois ranks 18th for the number of public corruption convictions the federal government has won from 1998 through 2007, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Department of Justice statistics.
Louisiana, Alaska and North Dakota all fared worse than the Land of Lincoln in that analysis.
The story goes on to say that it could be that North Dakotans are just better at catching crooked politicians, you betcha, than citizens in other states.
Also, there may be more corruption elsewhere but that it goes undiscovered.
It's possible that many Chicago politicians are so deviously brilliant at shakedowns that they manage to operate under the radar and never get arrested and convicted on corruption charges.
But after observing numerous Chicago and Illinois politicians over the years, I wouldn't bet the farm on that one.
Another possibility is that Chicagoans and Illinoisans are just so accustomed to the greased palm that they accept it to a degree that isn't true elsewhere. So maybe they don't drop a dime to the Feds as much.
If that's the case, Illinois could be closer to the top of corruption than its USA Today rank of 18 would make it seem.
Whatever Illinois' ranking, the truth of the matter is that there's too much corruption in American politics generally, that its nationwide in scope and that it must be combated, never tolerated.
Meanwhile, perhaps Illinois tourism and business development officials could build a marketing campaign around the theme that Illinois is only the 18th most corrupt state. Okay, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.
Comments
Frank, thank you for not embarrassing yourself again by trying to deny that a Chicago Machine still exists.
Posted by: MJ | December 11, 2008 10:11 AM
From the USA Today story:
"The analysis does not include corruption cases handled by state law enforcement and it considers only convictions. Corruption may run more rampant in some states but go undetected."
Because the analysis ignores the state law cases that make up 99% of criminal prosecutions, the analysis is worthless to show what Frank James claims it shows.
Posted by: HopeNChange | December 11, 2008 10:19 AM
Any state, city, federal government position that the democrats monopolize is corrupt. Look at what they did to Louisiana and the city of New Orleans. Chicago, Detroit, DC. LA, Philadelphia, Baltimore all cities monopolized by democrats and rampant with overdevelpment and crime. They've corrupted the federal govt. long ago also. The Kennedys put a glossy veneer on and finessed their corruption so it became acceptable. The Scamelot of the 60s that runs through today by the looks of it. Pretty sad.
Posted by: Al | December 11, 2008 10:23 AM
In terms of per capita population, Alaska is the most corrupt state. Of late we saw the Republican Senator Ted Stevens convicted on 7 felony counts. You also have governor Palin's administration under investigation. This was not mentioned much during the Presidential campaigning.
Posted by: Doug R. | December 11, 2008 10:53 AM
Palin investigation not mentioned during the campaign? What planet were you on?
These statistics are bogus. They should compare corruption to population of politicians, not general population. No wonder Alaska and North Dakota top the list. They have the fewest people. Louisiana is, and has always been, just like Illinois. Crooked, and run by Democrats. Until now, that is.
Posted by: Ed G | December 11, 2008 11:07 AM
It will be pure entertainment to watch Obami twist in the wind as the fed invest. digs deeper and deeper into the corrupt illinois gov. Obami has already lied about his staff's involvment in meetings with the corrupt democrat gov....it will only get worse for him and his cohorts. Life is good. Obami's admin. will hit the ground in jan 09 while being under a full fledged fed investigation. The man is a fraud and a lightweight. Will be great to watch him suffer as the investigation draws in the messiah.
Posted by: mgtc | December 11, 2008 11:10 AM
For anyone interested, to send an email to the governor's office, use the following link:
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm
Posted by: W OBrien | December 11, 2008 11:14 AM
The writer should check the facts. Name one politician that has been charged with corruption (or anything) in North Dakota in the last 30 years, much less convicted. I can't. So why would North Dakota be more corrupt than Illinois?
Posted by: Marc | December 11, 2008 11:18 AM
Palin was given a pass. The Republicans were busy drooling over her. Let's place a wire in her office and home and I'll betcha we'll find something fishy.
Posted by: Doug R. | December 11, 2008 11:25 AM
Marc,
Apparently you haven't checked very hard.
USA Today has their list and it's easy to verify the 53 convictions that they have listed.
Posted by: W OBrien | December 11, 2008 11:53 AM
The man is a fraud and a lightweight.
Posted by: mgtc | December 11, 2008 11:10 AM
Would that be the fraud that kicked the republicans backside in Nov? The "country first" dog food brand of politics, the republicans, are desperate to see the country fail. Bravo "great" American. Yes indeed those republicans are surely looking for Americas downfall.
Posted by: bill r. | December 11, 2008 11:55 AM
Ed G., just so. Convictions per capita is a poor measure of public corruption. Every state needs a governor, whether it has twelve million people like Illinois or half a million people and a bunch of moose like Alaska. Ditto for treasurers, secretaries of state, and on down the line. Convictions per officeholder would be a much more appropriate measure.
Posted by: DaveB | December 11, 2008 11:58 AM
Illinois politics is corrupt because of two factors. The first, big union state which means mob connections. Second, as in Louisana, the people of Illinois stupidly continue to vote for crooks.
Posted by: Terry | December 11, 2008 12:31 PM
Second, as in Louisana, the people of Illinois stupidly continue to vote for crooks.
Posted by: Terry | December 11, 2008 12:31 PM
This somehow reminds me of another state...HMMMM....HMMMMM....that's right Alaska.
Posted by: bill r. | December 11, 2008 1:01 PM
Illinois has been run by republicans for many many years before Blago. Many of you have no idea what you are talking about. Typical "great american" republicans.
Posted by: MR FACE | December 11, 2008 1:03 PM
I'm not sure that "convictions" is a good way to determine rank on this list. After all, how many years did Al Capone run the Chicago mob without being convicted (and even then they only got him for income tax evasion).
And besides, who is going to take the word of the outlasw Jesse James' older brother as to where the most crooked politicians operate?
Posted by: Nick in Virginia | December 11, 2008 1:35 PM
. . . as in Louisana, the people of Illinois stupidly continue to vote for crooks.
Posted by: Terry | December 11, 2008 12:31 PM
Yes, Terry, sometimes I wonder about the intelligence of the electorate. Alaska almost re-elected Ted Stevens, even after he'd been indicted. In Missouri, they elected Mel Carnahan, even though he was dead. John Stroger was renominated after he'd had a severe stroke that left him incapacitated. I'm sure that you can think of other examples.
Blagojevich arguably was elected in 2002 because he had the great good fortune to have an opponent named Ryan. I'd wager that a significant portion of the electorate thought that George Ryan was running for re-election. Heck, even one of the Swamp reporters called George Ryan "Jim Ryan" the other day, and didn't change it even after two commenters had pointed it out!
Maybe we ought to require voters to pass a simple civics test, of the sort required of applicants for naturalized citizenship, before allowing them to vote.
Posted by: DaveB | December 11, 2008 1:49 PM
DaveB is right. The Ryan name was "box office poison" and helped Rod a lot.
Actually, Jim Ryan's ethical problem, or one of them, was his involvement in the Rolando Cruz case q.v.
Buckley v. Valeo needs to be overruled. Seems the European countries, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, can get along fine with short campaigns and expenditure limits.
As long as it takes hundreds of thousands of "clams" to run for office , so long will the pay to play system, however disguised, decide elections.
I was against a Constitutional Convention, but maybe that's wrong. Maybe a CC is the only way campaign and ethics reform can be hard wired into the system.
Posted by: ornery | December 11, 2008 2:52 PM
Al, Terry, Ed G, all on target, certainly with respect to Louisiana, the Kingfish state. Randy Newman's "Land of Dreams", circa 1984, is a great conceptual CD, musically, with very little, if any, exaggeration lyrically, captures the story quite nicely. Some of the hate that was directed towards President Bush after Katrina should have been placed on the generational corruption in a city and state run by democras for only about 80 years, that neglected the overall condition and maintenace of the levees at every opportunity. But who really cares about any of this sort of stuff.
To Al's list of cities, the city of Houston could have been added during the corrupt 3-term reign of the most doufus big city mayor ever, Lee P. Brown. Good to know that the Land of Lincoln is only 18th on this list.
Posted by: Django - N Exile somewhere in/around the 30th Parallel | December 11, 2008 2:54 PM
"Illinois has been run by republicans for many many years before Blago. Many of you have no idea what you are talking about. Typical 'great american' republicans."
Posted by: MR FACE | December 11, 2008 1:03 PM
.
In our great state, political corruption is an equal opportunity employer.
Posted by: MJ | December 11, 2008 3:05 PM
Here's a question for all.
You got a multi-billion dollar company. It would cost someone around $20 million dollars to get the job to run the company. The job has NO bonuses and the "salary" is $150,000.00, a house (temporarily), and a car (temporarily). Sure there are some other benefits that come with the job, but that's it for the most part.
And WE wonder why we keep coming up with corrupt politicians.
Heck, I wonder why we DON'T come up with MORE.
Posted by: W OBrien | December 11, 2008 3:20 PM
There is so much corruption in this state that patrick fitzgerald has a hard time walking down his stairs without tripping over a corrupt politician.
Posted by: Bobby | July 14, 2009 2:07 AM
Illinois, Lousiana and New Jersey top the list---hands down. But the biggest joke is Chicago: My grandparents used to tell a "funny" story. In 1960 they both voted for JFK three times each! They were picked up by school buses and taken to various voting precincts where they voted for dead people and other scam voters. They got $5 for each vote, a ham sandwich and a pitcher of beer. The Mayor Dailey machine thusly insured the Democrat victory. Imagine, it should have been Nixon in that car in Dallas...
Posted by: bob allan | October 2, 2009 6:44 PM
there is only one comparison,w/ illinois politicians.95% our no different than julius ceasar,as a matter a fact more cowardess they hide behind the pen which is mightier than the sword! FOR NOW ANYWAY.
Posted by: SEA FALCON | December 20, 2009 12:55 AM