Why are Illinois Governors so corrupt? Name past criminal Governors Game!

[Chicago Democrat]

Illinois Governors always have to go to jail, right? That or they never get caught like in the case of Big Jim Thompson whose plays hatchet man for the Bush crime family in the 911 commmission.

NAME PAST CORRUPT ILLINOIS GOVERNORS! They are SO MANY! I bet there are more corrupt ones that had to go to jail than didn't... maybe it just seems like that. Seems to me I remember an awful lot of ones that had to go to jail.


OK I'll start...

[Chicago Democrat]

1. List of ALL ILLINOIS GOVERNORS

Governors of Illinois, 1818-2003 (May be incomplete!)
Shadrack Bond 1818-22 Edward Coles 1822-26 Ninian Edwards 1826-30 John Reynolds 1830-34 William Lee Davidson Ewing 1834 Joseph Duncan 1834-38 Thomas Carlin 1838-42 Thomas Ford 1842-46 Augustus C. French 1846-53 Joel Aldrich Matteson 1853-57 William Henry Bissell 1857-60 John Wood 1860-61 Richard Yates 1861-65 Richard J. Oglesby 1865-69 John M. Palmer 1869-73 Richard J. Oglesby 1873 John Lourie Beveridge 1873-77 Shelby M. Cullom 1877-83 John M. Hamilton 1883-85 Richard J. Oglesby 1885-89 Joseph W. Fifer 1889-93 John Peter Altgeld 1893-97 John R. Tanner 1897-1901 Richard Yates 1901-05 Charles S. Deneen 1905-13 Edward F. Dunne 1913-17 Frank O. Lowden 1917-21 Len Small 1921-29 Louis L. Emmerson 1929-33 Henry Horner 1933-40 John Stelle 1940-41 Dwight H. Green 1941-49 Adlai E. Stevenson 1949-53 William G. Stratton 1953-61 Otto Kerner 1961-68 Samuel H. Shapiro 1968-69 Richard Buell Ogilvie 1969-73 Daniel Walker 1973-77 James R. Thompson 1977-91 James Edgar 1991-99 George H. Ryan 1999-2003 Rod R. Blagojevich 2003-

[Chicago Democrat]

2. Ogilvie

[Chicago Democrat]

3. Otto Kerner

[barb162]

15. Kerner was a good guy and a good guv. That was a set-up

It was sickening.

[Chicago Democrat]

4. Daniel Walker

He lost the 1976 primary to Secretary of State Michael Howlett, the candidate supported by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. In the 1980s, entered the private sector with a chain of self-named quick oil-change franchises and a pair of troubled Savings and Loans. In 1987 he was convicted of improprieties related to the latter, and spent nearly two years in federal prison. He currently resides in California.


from wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Walker

[mopinko]

11. another dem hung for a misdemeanor

an honest men who didn't join the culture of corruption while in office, and was chased out. iirc.

[Bjornsdotter]

5. My favorite

He wasn't governor but... I think Sec of State Paul "shoebox" Powell.

Ooooo the scandal!

Cheers!

[Chicago Democrat]

6. Otto Kerner's Crime detail

While serving as Governor, he and another official made a gain of over $300,000 in a questionable stock deal which prosecutors later characterized as bribery. Convicted in 1973 on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and related charges; sentenced to three years in federal prison and fined $50,000. Died of cancer, May 9, 1976. Interment at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

[Chicago Democrat]

7. Oops apparently Oglivie wasnt a crook, I was thinking of Paul Powell!

thanks!

[Bjornsdotter]

8. You were on the right track...

Oglivie was the Gov when Powell died.

Cheers!

[kevsand]

9. I think Ogilvie did get caught in something

after leaving the governor's mansion. I can't remember what, though. And I vaguely remember something about Shapiro, as well.

Edgar has the Kemper Insurance thing hanging out there, but will probably never be indicted.

[Rich Hunt]

14. it would be interesting

...it would be interesting to read up on the histories of some of the more obscure names.

[mopinko]

10. how about secretaries of state?

so many have moved up to the mansion if they have not been convicted first. it is the corruption gateway.

paul powell, who was discovered upon his death to have a closet full of shoe boxes stuffed with cash.

[stevebreeze]

12. it's our system of electing them that is the hart of the problem

Start with the "farm system" for state politicians, the state legislature. Virtually every Governor and most other state officers start out in the legislature. To get elected you must have good connections or a lot of you own money. You MUST must suck up to one of the four tops. The four tops are the legislative leaders of each party in the House and Senate.Often the way to show sufficient viability with the four tops is to have already raised a lot of dough.
Then if you pass muster with them you get to go begging for additional dollars. YOu do this by appealing to interest groups. The interest group process starts with a questionnaire. They basically ask you if you will do what they want. If you are willing to do their bidding you get money, if not go begging somewhere else. You see this way you avoid the dreaded quid pro quo. If they asked you if you would do "A" if they gave you money, that would be wrong. However if the ask you if you would do "A", and you answer yes, that is just supporting good government. Osama Bin Laden would offer an IL politician a billion dollars and they could take it.

By a vast majority the scandals in IL politics have to do with greed, either for personal gain or personal power.

Unless and until we pass serious campaign finance laws in the nature of the clean money system promoted by Public Citizen, http://www.citizen.org/ we will continue to have corrupt and crappy government.

[davsand]

13. Clean elections. WHAT a concept!

Seems a shame that guys like Madigan would rather eat broken glass than see a loss of influence...

As I recall, there was a bill for clean elections that never saw the light of day because Madigan buried it. Now, to be fair, he may have buried it because the lobbyists wanted it to go away--I dunno for sure--but either way, it never had a chance.

Funny you should bring this up, stevebreeze. I was just having this discussion at the last Dem social hour. One of our county Dems is trying to organize here on clean elections modeled after Maine and Arizona. I agree with him completely, but I also think it probably will be a very long fight. I told him I could start attending meetings after the first of the year. :)

I may try and get hold of you--didn't you have a lot of material on Arizona and Maine when you were running?



Laura