# ND leads the country in political corruption



## BigDaddy (Mar 4, 2002)

Check out the story below from USA Today: (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-10-corruptstates_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip). A recent study concluded that North Dakota has the highest rates of political corruption convictions in the country on a per capita basis.

Is it because our politicians truly are corrupt, because the "per capita" expression of the data puts us at a disadvantage, or because we just make corruption cases public?

*North Dakota tops analysis of corruption*
By John Fritze, USA TODAY
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.

Alaska narrowly ousted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens in the election in November after he was convicted of not reporting gifts from wealthy friends. In Louisiana, Democratic Rep. William Jefferson was indicted in 2007 on racketeering and bribery charges after the FBI said it found $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer. Jefferson, who has maintained his innocence and will soon go to trial, lost his seat to a Republican this year.

But North Dakota?

Don Morrison, executive director of the non-partisan North Dakota Center for the Public Good, said it may be that North Dakotans are better at rooting out corruption when it occurs.

"Being a sparsely populated state, people know each other," he said. "We know our elected officials and so certainly to do what the governor of Illinois did is much more difficult here."

Morrison said the state has encouraged bad government practices in some cases by weakening disclosure laws. North Dakota does not require legislative or statewide candidates to disclose their campaign expenses.

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.

Michael Johnston is a political science professor at Colgate University in New York - which is ranked just after Illinois for corruption convictions. Johnston, who has studied political corruption for 30 years, said places such as Illinois gain a bad reputation that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"Expectations build up &#8230; and you replicate those expectations when you get to the top of the ladder," Johnston said. "It gets repeated."


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## drjongy (Oct 13, 2003)

That has to be one the most skewed articles I have ever read. I certainly feel dumber for having read it.

Next they'll be saying it's Posse Comitatus causing all the corruption.


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## Dak (Feb 28, 2005)

I must not being paying attention. I haven't noticed much in the way of political corruption convictions...particularly those not handled by state law enforcement.


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## cgreeny (Apr 21, 2004)

We also lead the nation in several other categories, DUI being one of them, based on our per captia basis. Just because we are in the lead based on these comparisions, I am sure we are much more well rounded that some of the bigger, more populated states where sweeping it under the rug is common policy. Don't believe everything you read. NY or CA is fine to visit but I would take ND to live hands down, whats next are we going to be leading the nation in murder rates based per capita next too. :eyeroll:


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Wow.... Like it said we in the rural areas see it a lot more. I don't think I know a single elected official who doesn't take a little extra. I agree corruption is terrible even if its just by not doing the job they are hired to do.

We are in the good ol boy state ya all know!!


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

That come up on another thread too. My response was:

If those guys had a highs school statistics class they must have flunked. Well, maybe they know how to do the math, but they don't know how to apply it. Well, lets look at this different. Maybe they aren't that stupid after all because they know how to apply it to tell a very slanted story.

If you want to compare politics you don't do it by number of citizens of the state, you compare it to the number of politicians. Every state has two senators so how do you think ---- hmmmm maybe I better not go there since one of ours is in the housing loan scandal. hmmmm he's a democrat too.

Anyway, if you looked at 100 legislators from North Dakota and 100 legislators from Illinois you perhaps would come close. Compared to within the Chicago city area I think you would find much higher corruption than say Fargo. Maybe it's just that ours are cheaper to buy. A legislator from Chicago in your pocket might cost you a million while one in your pocket from North Dakota only requires you to support Farm Bureau.


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## JBB (Feb 9, 2005)

That is a good article. Just one more way to make people not want to move here. Just leaves more of the state for those of us who truly appreciate it.


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## Gun Owner (Sep 9, 2005)

Ya know....

It could be said that by leading the nation in convictions for corruption, that just maybe they arent to good at it. You could also infer that with more convictions that maybe there are a lot less insiders keeping eachothers secrets amongst themselves.

Lets face it, its hard to get a corruption conviction when the whole system is in on it. Then you'll maybe get a scapegoat once in awhile, to keep the pressure off the more skilled career politicians


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## fishless (Aug 2, 2005)

Where does the spin stop!!


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## MN goose killa (Sep 19, 2008)

what is the point of knowing which state leads political corruption?


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

MN goose killa said:


> what is the point of knowing which state leads political corruption?


I don't think there is any point, they just want us to not look at Chicago to closely. This is supposed to tell us that Chicago is normal. I think I have some swamp land to sell to those guys.


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## MN goose killa (Sep 19, 2008)

haha


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## fishless (Aug 2, 2005)

Plainsman said:


> This is supposed to tell us that Chicago is normal. I think I have some swamp land to sell to those guys.


I have ocean front swamp land to sell them jokers!!


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I seen on ABC tonight that when they look at cases per 100 elected officials North Dakota ranks 47th. Stengem (our attorney general) said that if we had a task force just doing this like they do in Chicago and other large cities they would be sitting around like Maytag repair men.


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## Longshot (Feb 9, 2004)

*N.D. says the only thing corrupt is the story*

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles ... 171625.txt

Dec 12, 2008 - 04:05:31 CST
By BRIAN DUGGAN 
Bismarck Tribune
First Illinois. Now North Dakota.

Plenty of head scratching was happening at the state Capitol on Thursday after USA Today ran a story with the headline: "North Dakota tops analysis of corruption."

Where's Illinois federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald when you need him?

The story found that, based on the 53 federal public corruption convictions between 1998 and 2007 in North Dakota, there were 8.3 convictions per 100,000 people in the state - the most in the nation. Illinois had 3.9 per 100,000, according to the story, ranking it 18th overall.

A little context: North Dakota has about 640,000 people. Illinois has 12.8 million and 502 federal corruption convictions between 1998 and 2007.

As for North Dakota's company in USA Today's analysis: At No. 2 is Louisiana, with 7.7 convictions per 100,000 people, home to disgraced Democratic Rep. William Jefferson. And No. 3 is Alaska, with 7.5 convictions per 100,000 people, home to the recently convicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem called the article "patently ridiculous" on Thursday, adding among the most recent examples of high-profile federal convictions in North Dakota are the six Twin Butte school district members convicted of misusing school funds.

"I think everyone would agree that a group of local school board officials is far different than a governor accused of selling a U.S. Senate seat," said Stenehjem, referring to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who federal authorities arrested on Tuesday for trying to profit off of President-elect Obama's vacated Senate seat.

He's the second Illinois governor to wind up with federal charges this decade.

As for the article in USA Today: "This is what happens when you have somebody who takes statistics and doesn't do any analysis or comparison or puts anything into context," Stenehjem said.

While U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley was unavailable for comment Thursday, other state officials expressed their confusion over the corruption article.

"You gotta be kidding me," Secretary of State Al Jaeger said. "Boy, I've lived here all my life. I can't think of anybody who's been nailed for something."

Russell Mokhiber, editor of the weekly Washington-based newsletter Corporate Crime Reporter, said his organization ran a similar story in 2004 that pegged North Dakota as a hotbed of public corruption, with 45 federal convictions between 1993 and 2002.

Columnist and former Lt. Gov. Lloyd Omdahl responded with a column in 2004 critical of the newsletter's finding, writing that many of those federal convictions stemmed from American Indian reservations, based on a letter he received from the state's U.S attorney.

"First of all, Indian reservation are not state entities, nor are they political subdivisions of the state, so employees of casinos are not public officials engaged in official public duties," Omdahl wrote.

In the Corporate Crime Reporter's 2007 report, Mokhiber said his newsletter only included the 35 most populated states because of the statistical unfairness on sparsely populated states like North Dakota. The report found that Louisiana, followed by Mississippi and Kentucky, are the country's most corrupt states.

"We learned from our mistake when we crunched our numbers," he said. "What your columnist wrote we took to heart; we agree that North Dakota is not the most corrupt state."

Dana Harsell, a University of North Dakota political science professor, said calculating corruption on a per capita basis isn't exactly fair for states like North Dakota.

"I'm not sure if it gives a true measure of the extent of corruption," Harsell said. "We have one of the most accessible open-access laws in the country."

As for corrupt North Dakota state officials, State Historical Society Editor Kathy Davidson could think of one outstanding North Dakota politician: Gov. William Langer.

He was convicted of federal corruption charges in the early 1930s for diverting federal funds to political matters. He was later exonerated of the charges, re-elected to the governor's office in 1935 and went on to the U.S. Senate and served there until 1959.

So what happened since then? "We've just got boringly honest," Davidson said.

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or [email protected];bismarcktribune.com.)


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## Longshot (Feb 9, 2004)

It would also be interesting to see the comparison of the average corruption case load per US judges between the states.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

So what is corruption, stealing time or money? Or the old if you do that I'm going to do this? Is this personal corruption or professional corruption, many have DUI's and drug charges against them. Is using government cars for personal uses corruption or is it not spectacular enough for you? Is it corruption to make sure all your relatives get government jobs and appointments? Exactly how spectactacular does it have to be to qualify as corruption?

Birds of a feather flock together, so be careful which flock you defend. uke:


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