...1. Louisiana(7.67)
2. Mississippi (6.66)
3. Kentucky (5.18)
4. Alabama (4.76)
5. Ohio(4.69)
6. Illinois (4.68)
7. Pennsylvania (4.55)
8. Florida (4.47)
9. New Jersey (4.32)
10. New York (3.95)
11. Tennessee (3.68)
12. Virginia (3.64)
13. Oklahoma (2.96)
14. Connecticut (2.80)
15. Missouri (2.79)
16. Arkansas (2.74)
17. Massachusetts (2.66)
18. Texas (2.44)
19. Maryland (2.31)
20. Michigan (2.14)
21. Georgia (2.13)
22. Wisconsin (2.09)
23. California (2.07)
24. North Carolina (1.96)
25. Arizona (1.88)
26. Indiana (1.85)
27. South Carolina (1.74)
28. Nevada (1.72)
29. Colorado (1.56)
30. Washington (1.52)
31. Utah (1.4117)
32. Kansas (1.4109)
33. Minnesota (1.24)
34. Iowa (0.91)
35. Oregon (0.68).

Of course, the list is corrupted by listing Oregon last. We're an example from a page in that famous novel about irony, Catch 22 by Heller. The scene I'm talking about is the one where the local cops are beating a villager who is shouting "Help, police!" "Help police!" We in Oregon have no one to prosecute corruption because those folks are, uh, well...

The number following the State name is the number of public corruption convictions '97-'06 per 100,000 residents. Go here for the wordy but slightly interesting source: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1DFFD608-18FE-70B2-A876CBE25B75A4B8

Name that party! The citizens of Nevada elected Key Pittman to office even though on election night he lay dead in a bathtub full of ice in the Riverside Hotel. That way, his party would get to name his successor. Thanks to Al Moe's book Roots of Reno for reminding me of that story.