State Politics: Hotbed of Sleaze, Booze, Scandal

ABC investigation finds no shortage of sleaze at state level
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 19, 2010 9:36 AM CDT

You hear a lot more about the sleaze in Congress and governors' mansions than the sleaze at the state legislator level, but that's not because of a lack of low-down behavior, an ABC News investigation finds. Five grad students sent to cover a national convention of state legislators in Louisville, Ky., where the bourbon flowed freely, found an plethora of shenanigans among the hundreds of politicians and staffers in attendance.

One journalist was groped and kissed by a Puerto Rican lawmaker who later blamed his behavior on his poor English. Another lawmaker threatened a journalist with a golf club after he was caught skipping a seminar on good governance to play golf with a lobbyist. At least 80 state-level lawmakers have been indicted or convicted in the last 5 years, ABC notes, and the relative lack of scrutiny is leading a growing number of corporate lobbyists to focus on trying to influence the apparently corruptible state legislatures.
(More political scandal stories.)

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