To the surprise of many — even at least one public servant who helps run the state — New Jersey has been deemed the state least at risk of corruption. “I’m still in shock,” New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Lorretta Weinberg, a Democrat from Bergen County, told those conducting the State Integrity Investigation. “If we’re number one, I feel bad for the rest of the states.”
The result comes from an investigation overseen by various organizations and nonprofits into (1) the laws that state’s have on their books to combat corruption, and (2) the enforcement of those laws. So while Weinberg noted that New Jersey doesn’t have a squeaky clean reputation by mentioning that she has served with three politicians that are now in jail — that’s the whole point.
In New Jersey, states the report, corrupt officials are the most likely to discovered and reprimanded for their unlawful acts. In other states, they may go on being corrupt for term after term. This rarely makes headlines, but in the case of the gravest offenses by the most senior officials, it can lead to insidious governing that puts personal and special interests ahead of that of the businesses, organizations and citizens that reside in the state.
Unfortunately, however, not even New Jersey is truly head of the class. According to the report, “corruption risk,” as the State Integrity Investigation calls it, is rampant on the state level.
The investigation handed out grades to all 50 states for their overall law-making and enforcement on ethics-related matters and not a single one got an A. Using the typical grade school 100-point scale, New Jersey (87), Connecticut (86), Washington (83), California (81) and Nebraska (80) were the only five states to even receive a B, and more than half of the states got Ds or Fs.
Georgia was the only state to receive a grade below 50 (with a 49) due to that fact that “time and again, Georgia journalists and watchdog groups have found that money finds a way to flow around” the laws the state has enacted to “curtail undue influence on political activity and public policy.
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