Which Are The Most And Least Corrupt States In U.S. ?

(This cartoon on political corruption is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.)

If there's one thing that is sure these days, it is that political corruption exists in all 50 states. But some states are more corrupt than others. Which are the most (and least) corrupt? Harvard University's Edward J. Safra Center for Ethics has tried to answer that question for us. They asked reporters in all the states who cover statewide politics to rate their state's corruption (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being most corrupt). Here is what they said about their method:

We surveyed the news reporters covering state politics in addition to the investigative reporters covering issues related to corruption during the first half of 2014. Boylan and Long make a compelling argument regarding why we should survey reporters rather than another group of professionals such as trial lawyers or small business owners to measure government corruption. Reporters have a better knowledge of state governments and spend a great deal of time observing the government officials and interacting with them. We identified close to 1,000 reporters through an extensive search of the internet and contacted them via email. Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) helped us to contact the ones that we were not able identify on our own. We received a total of 280 responses. . . Surprisingly enough, we received no responses from Louisiana, which is historically one of the more corrupt states in America.

They also divided corruption into two different types -- legal and illegal corruption. Here's how they defined those two terms:

We define illegal corruption as the private gains in the form of cash or gifts by a government official, in exchange for providing specific benefits to private individuals or groups.

We define legal corruption as the political gains in the form of campaign contributions or endorsements by a government official, in exchange for providing specific benefits to private individuals or groups, be it by explicit or implicit understanding.

They also divided the corruption up into that in the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. If you want to see where your state fell in each of these categories, I urge you to go to the site and check it out (the connection is highlighted in green above). Below, I give you the most and least corrupt states both in illegal and legal corruption (after corruption in all three branches is combined):

STATES WITH MOST ILLEGAL CORRUPTION

Arizona
California
Kentucky
Alabama
Illinois
New Jersey
Georgia
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Florida
Indiana
Rhode Island
Texas

STATES WITH LEAST ILLEGAL CORRUPTION

Idaho
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
North Dakota
South Dakota
Vermont
Michigan
Oregon
Hawaii
Maryland
Wyoming

STATES WITH MOST LEGAL CORRUPTION

Kentucky
Illinois
Nevada
Mississippi
New Jersey Alabama
New Mexico
New York
Georgia
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin

STATES WITH LEAST LEGAL CORRUPTION

Massachusetts
Michigan
Oregon
Vermont
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
North Dakota
Wyoming
South Dakota
Idaho
Tennessee