Oh Holy Cow, No.
Fortune magazine just released their list of the ten most corrupt states in America.
Yeah.
Do you see Texas on that list? No, you do not.
Our Governor just got indicted and the Republican candidate for Attorney General, Ken Paxton, will probably get indicted before the election.
South Dakota? Really, Fortune magazine, South Dakota over Texas? Hell, there aren’t enough politicians in all of South Dakota to fill one decent size Republican fundraiser in a small town. This is Texas, we got corruption on a BOGO sale.
Frankly, I’m insulted.
Dear Miss Juanita,
The magazine is called ‘Fortune,’ not ‘Poverty.’ Of course they give Texas a pass.
1Besides Texas, two more obvious states omitted were New Jersey (Christie) and Virginia (McDonnell). Interesting to note that except for Illinois (Quinn) and Kentucky (Beshear), all the other states have Republican governors. So much for the party of responsibility. Wait they ARE responsible… for corruption.
2Where is New Jersey on the list? Right next to Texas, I guess.
http://www.ibtimes.com/gov-christie-shifted-pension-cash-wall-street-costing-new-jersey-taxpayers-38-billion-1667622
3This is a ranking of amateurs. Texas is a professional outfit.
4I think there should be bonus points for having your governor indicted!
5But I bet that the states named in the comments are still in the lower 50%!!! There is nothing like being controlled by the rePUKEians and theocratic BS for intense corruption. Wait! didn’t some jew dude kick some corrupt rePUKEian types out of some theocratic establishments????
6I have spoken in the past of of my uncle, Jimmy “Barstool” Grobnik, and the traditionally ubiquitous corruption in Chicago and Illinois which was actually the grease of good government back in the day (see my guest column back in Feb) I did the math the other day and more governors during my lifetime there ended up in prison than not, so it is deservedly part of this party.
But if I may break the fourth wall for a minute, and shed the fictitious Familia Hachecristo in favor of the actual Martinez family – yeah, I had an actual gringo uncle (who married my mother’s sister) who in his 70s spent 17 months as a guest at Club Fed as a bit-player bagman in the Hired Truck scandal.
One thing you need to know about Illinois is that it has more actual UNITS of “government” than any other state in the Union. In my town, on the same ballot, on top of federal offices and state-wide offices, I could vote for precinct committeman, school board, park board, city council, mayor, township offices, county board, county board president, states attorney, clerk of the courts county forest preserve district, county forest preserve district president,state rep, state senator, and College of DuPage trustees. There were almost as many offices in DuPage County as there were voters.
I ran for several on that list. Won two, lost two.
On top of that are a plethora of appointed positions, like highway commissions, water reclamation districts, library boards, museum boards, mosquito abatement districts, etc etc all of which have budgets fueled by direct or indirect taxing power.
And most of them were PAID positions. With all of that grease flying around, yeah, a LOT of people got dirty.
As a former Illinois politician, I used to say with equal parts pride and chagrin, “The good news is, I never took a bribe. The bad news is, I was never offered one.”
It wasn’t until later I learned I could have tapped my uncle, all along!
7Relieved that Illinois is only number four. But, seriously, where ARE New Jersey and Texas? Is there an elite list to which we can only aspire? Just asking…
8This is an insult! Texas not No.1? I demand to see their methodology. Can Fortune be trusted?
9Statistics based on “corruption convictions” factored in terms of state “expenditures.”
JJ nailed it with South Dakota. SD wouldn’t spend 1% of the CA or NJ budgets, if SD built every citizen a new house. The Forbes article seems to defend the Christie plan – steal big.
Anyway, as a statistical model, this article was certainly a bizarre leap of conjectures to a dubious conclusion. Fear not Texas, a solid defense can be made for your corruption status.
10I’m pretty sure if you peruse Madville Times you will find out there is plenty of corruption in South Dakota,which has had a one party chokehold on the state for over 30 years.
11Numbers 1, 2 and 6 don’t surprise me at all! But, JJ, you are right! I think you all were slighted and maybe should sue!
12But for gawd sakes hire outside counsel because Abbot could lose before a jury he bribed.
13http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/03/19/8423/grading-nation-how-accountable-your-state
CPI’s list for risk of corruption has Texas ranked 27 and South Dakota next to last at 49. See where your state ranks.
14http://www.chinatopix.com/articles/8192/20140828/former-senator-kent-sorenson-accepts-bribes-drop-michele-bachmann-campaign.htm
One of iowa’s very own wingnuts gets caught being bribed. ROTFLMAO 🙂
15I guess size really doesn’t matter…we’re only #7.
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