Mississippi celebrating

By Carter Bundy

I’m not a statistician. I mean, I can do the math of how many more games the Sawx have to lose to complete one of the great collapses in baseball history, and understand the numbers that back up Derek Jeter as one of the great clutch hitters ever. But I need some help with these numbers:

Thank God for Alaska?

What are the odds that all three of New Mexico’s Republicans in Washington would end up on the list of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress? That’s a statistical freakshow. Seriously, what are the odds that a small state would have even two people, both from the same party?

OK, Alaska had the same problem (the $200 million bridge to nowhere is just the tip of the, uh, iceberg) – also landing all three of its Republicans on the list. So New Mexico Republicans and Alaska Republicans are the most corrupt state party delegations in all of America.

That big “woo-hoo” sound you hear isn’t from Homer Simpson, it’s from Mississippi, notoriously corrupt and the subject of our unofficial state motto. (“Thank God for Mississippi” is a common refrain when most national lists are released.) Mississippi has no one on the list, and even traditionally corrupt Louisiana only landed one of its members of Congress on the list compiled by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Who is CREW?

CREW is both non-profit and non-partisan. Its last major study – of nepotism in Congress – listed 41 Dems and 55 Republicans. Doesn’t sound very partisan to me.

The current list has 18 Republicans and 4 Dems, but one of the Dems is effectively the leader of the troop withdrawal movement (John Murtha, D-Penn.). Combined, CREW listed 73 Republicans and 45 Dems. Given the GOP control of Washington for the last 12 years, and total control of government for the last seven, wouldn’t you expect higher GOP corruption numbers?

And that’s not even taking into account that the national GOP is owned by big oil, pharmaceutical and defense contractors, groups that have made an art of corrupting Washington and who really don’t like Dems too much.

On balance, it sounds like, if anything, CREW is being kind to the GOP and is bending over backwards to find Dems to include on these lists.

And the list wasn’t compiled based on swing district/swing state targets, either. Pearce is coming off a nearly 20-point win last year, and Saint (ahem) Pete is still widely considered a favorite. Wilson may have another close race, but the bulk of the members on the list are not in key districts.

This report will, justifiably, further tarnish Pearce and Domenici, making their races more competitive, but if CREW were looking for electoral gains for Dems, they had lower-hanging fruit in plenty of other states.

Mixin’ with Nixon

Wilson and Domenici are on the list largely because of their attempts to strong-arm U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, formerly a devoted Republican, into rushing indictments against Democrats right before the November 2006 elections. Wilson barely won, but she and her mentor, Domenici, clearly stood to gain politically by moving the indictments up a few months.

Is Iglesias-gate as dramatic as Watergate? Not in scope or press coverage, but it’s the same – or worse – in principle: elected officials bending the rules to skew an election in favor of themselves and their party, thwarting democracy. Making Iglesias-gate even a shade more sinister is that Domenici and Wilson sought to corrupt the Department of Justice in pursuit of electoral gain.

Nixon was a creep, eavesdropper, trespasser and cheater in a presidential race, but Domenici’s and Wilson’s corruption is arguably more damaging to the basic infrastructure of our democracy because it threatens the independence of our judiciary.

Unfortunately, our ethics laws in Washington are so tame that, at worst, Wilson and Domenici will get the Lindsey Lohan treatment from the law. Fortunately, with New Mexico leading the way in using paper ballots, voters have a reasonably reliable option: to vote them out of office.

Pearce’s propensity for petroleum pet projects

Pearce’s actions – helping his big oil donors open up Otero Mesa – are so egregious that the allegations of potential bribery are flying fast and furious.

According to CREW, Yates Petroleum and the Yates family have contributed over $110,000 to Pearce since 2002. The Chase Petroleum family has given over $50,000 during the same period. Guess which company is the largest leaseholder in Otero Mesa? If you said Yates, you’re starting to get the connection between unlimited oil exploration donors and Pearce. Guess who has 21 leases in Otero Mesa? Yeah, those nice Chase people.

Bonus Pearce corruption factor: CREW claims that Pearce failed to file self-dealing transactions worth, apparently, millions and millions of dollars. If Pearce had misfiled for a few small campaign expenditures, heck, no one’s perfect. But leaving out multi-million dollar transactions involving his own company? The original company was called Lea Fishing Tools, and you can read all about it at CREW’s report by clicking here. I doubt we’ve heard the last of this one.

Sounds like a little more than an oversight to me. In fact, you might even call it fishy. But corruption is the way the New Mexico Republican delegation rolls. Statisticians, what are the odds?

And Mississippi, congrats. Thank God for New Mexico Republicans in Washington, sí?

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in New Mexico. The opinions in his column are personal and in no way reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com.