April, 21 2010, 11:13am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Peter Bjork 202.408.5565
CREW Releases 'Worst Governors' Report - 11 Governors Who Champion Their Personal Interests Over Their States
WASHINGTON
Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
released a report on the nation's most incompetent and unethical
governors. CREW's Worst Governors report provides
in-depth analyses of 11 elected officials who have pushed their states'
best interests aside in favor of their supporters, families, political
parties and bank accounts.
CREW today also launched the report's website, www.WorstGovernors.org,
which offers concise summaries of each governor's offenses and links to
their full profiles.
In compiling Worst Governors, CREW reviewed the job
performances of all 50 U.S. governors before identifying the worst 11.
Though ethics laws, campaign finance rules and financial disclosure
regulations vary from state to state, CREW found these governors'
proclivities for corruption, cronyism and self-enrichment outweighed
their competency, integrity and commitment to transparency.
CREW's unranked list of the 11 worst governors includes:
* Gov. Donald Carcieri (R-RI);
* Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV);
* Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA);
* Gov. David Paterson (D-NY);
* Gov. Sonny Perdue (R-GA);
* Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX);
* Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM);
* Gov. Mike Rounds (R-SD);
* Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC); and
* Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA).
CREW's report also includes the Worst
Governors Index, a Harper's Index-style compendium
of statistics from the report. Highlights include Gov. Perdue's $2,400
private plane ride to a NASCAR race 30 miles away, Gov. Gibbons' 867
state-billed text messages sent to his "alleged" mistress over six weeks
in 2007, and Gov. Perry's minimum 17 former aides-turned-lobbyists.
CREW's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said today, "From Gov.
Jindal's hundreds of campaign-contributing state appointees to Gov.
Paterson's efforts to pressure a domestic violence victim to stay silent
- CREW's Worst Governors report leaves you wondering if these
really are the people best equipped to handle the complicated problems
faced across the nation."
Sloan continued, "There has been a great deal of focus on the ethics
of Congress over the past few years, but CREW's report shows that state
governments are not immune to ethics problems. Too often -- whether in
Washington, D.C. or in South Dakota -- our country's political leaders
are more focused on what's best for the favored few, rather than on
improving the lives of Americans."
Click
here to visit WorstGovernors.org
Click
here to read CREW's full Worst Governors report
Click
here to read CREW's Worst Governors Index
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach.
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