Is Your State On The List Of The Most Corrupt? Find Out!

[DeSwiss]

The Young Turks * Published on Jul 26, 2014

"Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's indictment on charges that he accepted illegal gifts, vacations and loans from a major campaign contributor who sought special treatment is so shocking, in part, because McDonnell is the first governor in the history of the Commonwealth to face criminal charges. Unlike plenty of other states, Virginia doesn't have a long history of scandals and ethics abuses.

"Which states are more used to corruption? Well, depending on how you define corruption, it could be Florida, or Louisiana, or Tennessee, or New York, or Georgia. And then there's the District of Columbia." *

Cenk Uygur, Gina Grad, Ben Mankiewicz and Dave Rubin break down the who, what and why of this intriguing list.

* Read more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/01/22/the-most-corrupt-states-in-america/

- You don't have to worry about the corrupt politicians in the Bible-Belt states because Jesus has already forgiven their sins......

[House of Roberts]

1. "...because Jesus has already forgiven their sins..."

That's OK, because I haven't. Just because Alabama only gets a C- on that map doesn't mean they're remotely honest here.

[DeSwiss]

2. !

I know, I know. My wife's from there. She went away to go to college and refused to go back!

- 46 years ago.

[House of Roberts]

3. More power to her,

I have too much too carry to move far enough not to land in another red state.

[DeSwiss]

5. We're #3!!!

[Marie Marie]

4. We're No. 5 - we're No. 5 !!!

USA USA USA!! A big shout out to Gov Fracking and his merry band of gerrymandered Republican assembly majority!

[MannyGoldstein]

6. What? States get rewarded for not catching their corrupt officials?

It's interesting that the corruption that gets caught in Mass is all stupid, petty stuff - usually a few hundred bucks or a dumbass lie. I suspect that we catch the little stuff before it turns into big stuff. But because we catch it, we get dinged in that report.

[DeSwiss]

7. Mass is no NJ.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Lord no!

It's inconceivable that we could have a Chris Christie here. Romney tried, and we all farted in his general direction and ran him out of town.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

9. Recently, the most corrupt town in Illinois was not Chicago

But rather a Chicago suburb, Cicero (home of that staunch Republican, Al Capone). Cicero town officials have uniformly been Republicans for decades.

Betty Loren-Maltese used to be the Town President of Cicero. She inherited the job from her husband, Frank Maltese, who had to resign as Town President after he was convicted of mob-related gambling charges. (He died of cancer before he could start serving his sentence.) Anyway, Loren-Maltese got into trouble because a newspaper reporter discovered that she had bought a house in Las Vegas for $1 million, yet her salary was $85K. So where did the money come from?

The U.S. Attorney started looking into Cicero, and discovered that Loren-Maltese, the Town Treasurer, the Town Attorney, the Police Chief and his predecessor, and a couple of mafiosi had robbed the town of $12 million. During the course of the investigation, the entire Cicero police force was fired. Two thirds of the patrolmen and half of the detectives did manage to be re-hired, but for the better part of a year, the town was patrolled by the Illinois State Police, at a horrendous per-diem paid to the state. Ms. Loren-Maltese has been released from prison, and is now working at a hostess at a pizzaria.

The replacement as Cicero Town Attorney, Edward "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak, a former Chicago Alderman, former Democrat (now Republican), was convicted of fraud and was in the same cell block in the federal prison at Terre Haute as former governor George Ryan. (Ryan's successor as governor, Rod Blagojevich, is in a different federal prison -- I thought it would be appropriate if the two were cellmates, but it didn't happen. BTW, Ryan is a Republican, Blago is a Democrat). Vrdolyak's successor, Michael Del Galdo, is was found to have overbilled the town to the tune of $2 million.

Cicero, incidentally, was named for the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, noted as a fighter against government corruption.

[DeSwiss]

10. I'd actually read about this some time back.....

...and it has always been notorious for a number of reasons as well, including the race riot in 51'. But I like to think the Chicago mob chose Cicero, in part, for the very reason of whom it was named for.

- In between the baseball clubbing of the occasional late vic-payer, Big All was not without a sense of humor.....

[ColesCountyDem]

13. East St. Louis has always given Cicero a run for their money, pun intended. n/t

[bearssoapbox]

11. We only got a D???? (OH)

I guess Kashits just will have to try harder.




:large


I'm sure the ass could get us an F with a little more effort.

[Ford_Prefect]

12. A somewhat limited and facile evaluation of "corruption"...

The linear evaluation of corruption used in the chart leaves out situations like my home state of North Carolina where most of the state legislature belongs quite literally to Art Pope...along with the Governor, and most of the senior state agency heads.