- Would Batman let a corrupt politician ride in the batmobile? I think not.
According to the Daily Beast, Ohio comes in relatively low on the state corruption spectrum at only 32nd.
That can't be right, can it? With Marc Dann and Traficant and Jimmy Dimora, we have to be more corrupt than that, no? We're good at very little, if they take away corruption from us, what do we have left?
Rest easy, fellow Buckeyes. It seems the Daily Beast's methodology is flawed. We're way more corrupt than it appears. Here's how they came up with the ratings:
•Public corruption, 1998—2008: Convictions of elected and other public officials investigated by federal agents over an 11-year period, from the Department of Justice.•Racketeering and Extortion, 1998—2008: Code for organized crime convictions, also investigated by federal agents over an 11-year period, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
•Forgery and Counterfeiting, 1999—2008: Arrest numbers for producing or distributing fake money and goods over a 10-year period, from the FBI.
•Fraud, 1999—2008: Arrests for false statements or documents produced for personal gain over a 10-year period, from the FBI.
•Embezzlement, 1999—2008: Arrests for surreptitious theft of money over a 10-year period, from the FBI.
So while Ohio was 13th in Public Corruption, 8th in Racketeering & Extortion, 42nd in Fraud, 42nd in Forgery & Counterfeiting, and 46th in Embezzlement, the Daily Beast is only counting corrupt politicians that got caught. Everyone knows the best criminals are the ones that don't get caught, so mainly this was a ranking of the least competent state criminals, and we're just fine being low on that one.
That, and it seems the research folks at DB counted only state-level corruption. If they spread their wings and endeavored into local politics, we'd make the top ten for sure.
Their blurb about the Buckeye state after the jump.