PITTSBURGH, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Government corruption is an ingrained part of the culture in five states, a political scientist asserts.
Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana and Pennsylvania are states where they have had high-profile corruption cases and a public largely tolerant of corrupt officials, said Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa.
"It's part of the broader culture of how politics operates in these places. It's passed down from one generation to another. It's almost an expectation that 'This is the way it's done,'" Borick was quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as saying.
In Pennsylvania, during the past decade, 10 state lawmakers faced criminal charges that related to their official duties, but no governor has gone to jail despite widespread corruption in the 1970s, said G. Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Franklin & Marshall College.
The newspaper reported that a former state attorney general, Ernie Preate, was sentenced to prison for a 1995 fundraising scheme. Former Auditor General Al Benedict was convicted of tax evasion and racketeering in 1988, and former Treasurer Budd Dwyer was convicted of agreeing to take a $300,000 kickback.
"The commonwealth has had its share of miscreant public officials over the years but it is far from the most corrupt state in the union," said Chuck Ardo, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.
